Taiwan is part of the solution to challenges posed by China and North Korea in the Indo-Pacific region with its close relations with the US and Japan, a former NATO commander said yesterday.
The expansion of China’s military force and North Korea’s nuclear program pose a threat to regional security, retired US Navy admiral James Stavridis, who was the alliance’s supreme commander from 2009 to 2013, told the one-day Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue in Taipei.
With China’s naval capacity continuing to expand and its warships traveling around the world, Stavridis said that Beijing is becoming a significant player in the Indo-Pacific region.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
China’s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea is even more worrying, he said.
Stavridis said Taiwan is a strong friend and partner to the US, as well as nations in the Indo-Pacific region.
As the world’s 22nd-largest economy, despite only having 23 million people, with capable and professional armed forces, Stavridis said that the nation is part of the solution to the challenges in the region.
Possible solutions to the challenges are in “collective action together” with like-minded countries, particularly South Korea and Japan, he said.
Facing these challenges, Stavridis said that regional nations and the US should remain in constant dialogue with each other and with China, striving for solutions through diplomatic means, as well as collective defense.
“If we work at this together, we can create peace ahead,” he said.
The event was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Taipei-based Prospect Foundation, the US-based Center for New American Security and the Japan-based Sasakawa Peace Foundation.
Former US deputy national security adviser Nadia Schadlow also spoke at the seminar, sharing her insights into Taiwan’s possible role in the US-initiated Indo-Pacific strategy, the ministry said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS