The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday announced that it is to reopen a representative office in Guam, citing the growing strategic importance of the Pacific region and a strong Taiwan-US partnership.
Preparations for reopening the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Guam were already under way, the ministry said yesterday in a statement.
The de facto embassy in the US’ unincorporated, organized territory was closed in August 2017 during the tenure of former minister of foreign affairs David Lee (李大維), along with offices in Norway and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
Due to budget and personnel considerations, the government in 2017 deemed it necessary to temporarily halt operation of the office in Guam, the ministry said.
With the ministry’s budget rising steadily from 2018, Taiwan and the US have forged an increasingly strong global partnership and the strategic importance of the Pacific region has continued to grow, leading to the ministry’s decision to reinstate the office, it said.
The US has paid increased attention to the Pacific region, as it launched the US Indo-Pacific Strategy in 2018, and the Indo-Pacific Strategy Report and a report titled A Free and Open Indo-Pacific: Advancing a Shared Vision last year, the ministry said.
Re-establishing the representative office in Guam would facilitate economic and trade cooperation, and exchanges between Taiwan and the greater western Pacific region, deepen relations with its Pacific allies and increase multilateral exchanges, it said.
Taiwan in September last year lost two Pacific allies — the Solomon Islands and Kiribati — within a week amid Beijing’s pressure.
It now maintains formal relations with 15 nations, including four in the Pacific — Palau, Nauru, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands.
In 2017 and 2018, then-Guam governor Eddie Calvo led delegations to Taiwan and expressed his support for re-establishing the office when he met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), as well as boosting bilateral tourism and economic exchanges, the ministry said.
Taiwan maintains steady economic and trade relations with Guam, as Taiwanese enterprises — such as Lih Pao Construction (麗寶建設), Chung Kuo Insurance (兆豐保險), First Commercial Bank (第一商銀), Asia Cement Corp (亞泥) and China Airlines (華航) — have invested in the territory, it said.
Medical tourism from Guam to Taiwan has also gained momentum, it added.
After the reopening of the Guam office, the number of representative offices in the US would increase to 13: Washington, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Chicago, Honolulu, Denver, Miami and Guam, the ministry said.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
RSS