The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday welcomed a joint statement by ASEAN leaders voicing concerns that the situation across the Taiwan Strait could affect regional stability.
The statement was issued after the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat ended on Saturday in Jakarta. It was the first major meeting since Indonesia assumed chairmanship of ASEAN this year.
Attendees of the meeting reiterated their determination to promote “sustainable peace, security, stability, and prosperity within and beyond the region,” the statement said.
Photo: AP
They expressed concerns about developments across the Taiwan Strait and their “implications on regional stability,” the statement said.
The cross-strait situation “could lead to miscalculation, serious confrontation, open conflicts, and unpredictable consequences,” it said.
ASEAN is ready to “play a constructive role in facilitating peaceful dialogue between all parties ... to de-escalate tension, to safeguard peace, security and development in the area adjacent to our region,” it said.
Photo: Screen grab from the WHO’s Web site
The group voiced similar concerns after the ASEAN Foreign Ministerial Meetings in August last year, the ministry said in a news release yesterday.
That meeting was held as the Chinese military was conducting live-fire drills around Taiwan after then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei.
At the time, ASEAN called for “maximum restraint, refrain from provocative action.”
The ministry called on ASEAN member states to continue to support democratic Taiwan and pay attention to cross-strait peace and stability.
Taiwan is willing to deepen cooperation with ASEAN based on the solid foundation of the New Southbound Policy to protect the rules-based international order and facilitate peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, it said.
Taiwan hopes that the summits and meetings held under the leadership of Indonesia are successful, it added.
In other news, Japan, Nauru and the US have voiced support for Taiwan at the 152nd session of the WHO Executive Board, which began on Monday last week and ends tomorrow.
“We urge WHO to be fully inclusive of all partners, including Taiwan, and support Taiwan’s participation as an observer to the WHA [World Health Organization] and in the work of WHO,” Bathsheba Nell Crocker, US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, said on Saturday.
Japanese Assistant Minister for Global Health and Welfare Eiji Hinoshita praised Taiwan’s success in tackling COVID-19, calling on the WHO not to “make any geographical vacuums which are created by leaving specific regions behind in addressing global health issues.”
Nauru said in a statement that omitting countries such as Taiwan from WHO projects “creates a gap that undermines global preparedness and response to health emergencies.”
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
RSS