The former commander of US forces in the Pacific, Admiral Dennis Blair, back in the US after observing Taiwan's annual military exercises, on Tuesday called on Japan to continue supporting the US policy of deterrence against Chinese military action against Taiwan, saying that a joint policy is necessary for the security of the Asian region.
Blair equated the need for a deterrence policy in the Taiwan Strait with the need for joint action against North Korea, calling both issues "inherited problems from the past" in US-Japanese relations.
Blair made his comments in a conference on US-Japan security strategy in a week in which relations between the US and Japan have been the focus in Washington.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Washington last Thursday and Friday, his first trip to Washington since his election, for talks with US President George W. Bush spanning the gamut of bilateral relations, including the situation in the Taiwan Strait.
The foreign and defense ministers of both countries met in Washington on Tuesday for their latest session of the periodic "2-plus-2" talks on military and security issues, which also had a Taiwan component.
"The United States has been the prime underwriter of deterrence in both [Taiwan and North Korea]," Blair told a conference at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank.
"Japan has been over the years taking a private, secret and a little more public role in support of the United States in this area. This trend has to continue, because it is in the interest of both of our countries, and in the region, that these two festering problems be solved by peaceful means," he said.
"And the way to solve them by peaceful means is to ensure that the use of military force by either the PRC [People's Republic of China] or by North Korea will be unsuccessful, will be seen to be unsuccessful, and therefore peaceful means will be the way to solve [them]," Blair said.
Rather than using military force, the solution to the cross-strait and North Korean issues "will be accomplished by diplomacy and economic ties and economic pressure, and by personal ties, rather than by military force," he said.
On cross-strait tensions, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, at a separate setting, expressed concern over Chinese missiles and other military buildup opposite Taiwan, but also took time to fault Taiwanese politicians for acts that could, in the US view, hurt prospects for a peaceful solution.
"The Taiwan Straits [sic] and the issue of China-Taiwan is one of the potential serious flashpoints on the global scene," he said, claiming that the situation is calmer than it was in the 1990s.
"We're ... concerned sometimes that there are moves afoot in Taiwan on the part of some of the actors, political actors there, to try in some way to change the status quo by defining the nature of Taiwan differently, changing the name, calling for referendums with respect to one aspect of Taiwan or another, or changing the Constitution," Negroponte said.
"All of these things we feel need to be viewed in the context of resolving these issues peacefully and not taking any provocative actions whatsoever," he said.
settlement
Negroponte described a peaceful settlement of cross-strait tensions as the "most important, fundamental principal" of US policy toward Taiwan. He expressed concern over China's continuing military buildup and repeated Washington's call to the leaders in Beijing to open dialogue with President Chen Shui-bian (
Chinese buildup
Negroponte was asked by the top Republican on the committee and an important Taiwan supporter, Lleana Ros-Lehtinen, whether the State Department saw the Chinese buildup as "a clear indication that Beijing plans to eventually settle the Taiwan issue militarily, once and for all" as indicated by China's 2005 "Anti-Secession" Law.
"We would all hope not," Negroponte replied.
He said that Taiwan and China "have undertaken commitments and others" to "settle the problem on the Taiwan Straits [sic] by peaceful means."
"And we think this is probably the most important, fundamental principle, that these differences, however serious they may be, across the Taiwan Straits [sic], must be settled peacefully." he said.
`concerned'
In a written statement prepared for the committee hearing, Negroponte said the US is "especially concerned about the growing arsenal of missiles and other military systems arrayed against Taiwan, as well as Beijing's refusal to renounce the use of force against Taiwan."
Repeating Washington's long-term call for Beijing to open talks with the Chen government, he said that the US would "continue to adhere to our stabilizing one-China policy," including selling Taiwan sufficient weapons to defend itself.
On the question of Taiwan's participation in the World Health Assembly in Geneva later this month, Negroponte said that the administration supports observer status for Taiwan, but failed to make any commitment to help Taiwan secure that status. He also said Beijing was "wrong" in opposing Taiwan's participation.
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