President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday told a visiting Japanese parliamentarian delegation that Taiwan looks forward to working with Tokyo on efforts to maintain the stability of the Indo-Pacific region.
In livestreamed remarks made ahead of a closed-door meeting with the delegation led by former Japanese minister of defense Shigeru Ishiba, Tsai said Taiwan would work with Japan and other democratic partners to contribute to the peace and stability of the region.
The security of Taiwan is important not only in terms of protecting the nation’s sovereignty, but also the defensively strategic “first island chain,” she said.
Photo: AP / Presidential Office
Ishiba, who arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday, said his four-day trip is aimed at fostering exchanges with Taiwanese officials on how the two nations should collaborate on security matters.
“We need to think ahead about what kind of situations could happen, what kind of laws and agreements we should prepare, and what kind of armaments we could use,” he said in prepared remarks. “We need to work together to reach consensus on this ahead of anything that could happen.”
Ishiba said that Japan is also working closely with the US to prevent conflict in the Indo-Pacific region, adding that the defense allies “had no choice” but to prepare.
The four-member delegation includes another former Japanese minister of defense, Yasukazu Hamada, as well as former deputy minister of defense Akihisa Nakashima and Takayuki Shimizu.
Taiwan said all four delegates are members of a Japanese parliamentarian association on security issues founded by Ishiba and Hamada in November 2019.
Ishiba, who served as defense minister from 2007 to 2008, said that Japan had responsibility for the stability of the Asia-Pacific region and that it was an issue that former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe had paid special attention to.
It was regrettable that the Abe — who died on July 8 — was unable to continue his work, Ishiba said, adding that he wished to carry on what was left unfinished by Abe and actively work on regional security affairs.
Additional reporting by AP
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