The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked the US, the EU, Japan and South Korea for underlining the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and related events in Jakarta last week.
The 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Post Ministerial Conference and other meetings were held from Tuesday to Friday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeatedly underscored the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, including during a meeting with Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Wang Yi (王毅) and at the US-ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the ministry said in a news release.
Photo: Reuters
At a news conference in Jakarta on Friday, Blinken expressed the US’ concern about China’s increasing assertiveness in the South and East China seas and in the Taiwan Strait.
The US remains committed to “upholding freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea,” he said.
“The United States also seeks to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which is in the interest of all nations” and opposes unilateral changes to the “status quo” by either side, he added.
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi and South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin voiced concerns over the situation in the Taiwan Strait and stressed the importance of cross-strait peace and stability during their separate meetings with Wang in Jakarta, the ministry said.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell on Friday wrote on Twitter that he and Wang discussed “preserving stability and the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.”
Borrell echoed a European Council report published on June 30, which said that the EU “is concerned about growing tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” the ministry said.
The concerns voiced by these leaders demonstrate that peace in the Taiwan Strait has become the consensus among like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific region, it said.
Taiwan would continue to work with like-minded partners to deepen relations and cooperation, as well as safeguard peace, stability and prosperity in the Taiwan Strait, it added.
In other news, the ministry yesterday said that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s administration was attempting to curry favor with Beijing by planning to propose to replace the Legislative Yuan with the Chinese National People’s Congress as an observer in the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN).
In April last year, then-PARLACEN president Guillermo Daniel Ortega Reyes of Nicaragua issued a statement, which had not been discussed by the parliament, saying that there was only “one China,” the ministry said.
By planning to rescind Taiwan’s observer status, Nicaragua was again attempting to placate China in hopes of obtaining economic aid and political support to solve its domestic economic woes, the ministry said.
It said that Beijing’s use of its “one China” principle to prevent Taiwan’s participation in international organizations was disgusting behavior that lacked respect for international organization mechanisms.
The ministry called on Ortega to restore Nicaragua’s democratic constitutional system as soon as possible to win international support instead of blindly appeasing Beijing.
Additional reporting by CNA
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
RSS