President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday underscored her administration’s intent to cement Taiwan-US relations as she welcomed a delegation of US lawmakers led by US Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.
“We thank the US Congress for consistently showing bipartisan concern for Taiwan’s security and its show of support [for the nation] through concrete actions,” Tsai told the delegation at the Presidential Office in Taipei.
The nation expresses gratitude to committee members for their continued efforts to “include policy measures in the annual renewal of the National Defense Authorization Act that enhanced Taiwan’s defensive capabilities,” she said.
Photo: CNA
“Deepening the security cooperation between Taiwan and the US is crucial for maintaining the security of Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region,” Tsai said.
Members of the committee demonstrated their attentiveness to developments on the international stage and challenges to democracies, she said, adding that the committee has “protected the national security of the US and its democratic allies.”
Tsai also thanked the US Congress for its support in facilitating the signing of the first agreement under the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade earlier this month, which “marked a new milestone in Taiwan-US trade and economic relations.”
Taipei intends to accelerate its efforts with Washington to create a comprehensive solution to double taxation affecting Taiwanese and US businesspeople to promote economic exchanges between the two countries, she said.
The Presidential Office in a news release cited Rogers as saying that Taiwan and the US share a long and important friendship based on the common values of the rule of law, democracy, and the belief in a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
The bipartisan congressional delegation led by Rogers includes US representatives Adam Smith, Joe Courtney, John Garamendi, Jill Tokuda, David Rouzer, Gary Palmer, James Moylan and Corry Mills.
In other news, Nikki Haley, a former US ambassador to the UN and a Republican presidential hopeful, on Tuesday said that Washington and its allies should “give Taiwan everything it needs to defend itself,” and make clear to Beijing that aggression would mean “a full-blown economic decoupling that would massively damage China.”
Beijing is “an enemy” to the US and “the most dangerous opponent we have faced since World War II,” Haley said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
“The [Chinese] Communist Party’s endgame is clear. China is preparing its people for war. [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping, 習近平] has openly said it,” she said. “We should take him at his word and act accordingly.”
The US must get Europe to recognize the threat China poses to its security and shake the bloc out of its slumber, Haley said.
Washington should deepen military cooperation with Japan, South Korea, Australia and other partners in the Indo-Pacific region, she said.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS