US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan yesterday said that Washington and its Asia allies would “stand up” for stability across the Taiwan Strait and reiterated their commitment to freedom of navigation in the disputed South China Sea.
His comments came during a joint briefing with his Tokyo and Seoul counterparts, after a trilateral meeting in South Korea.
Late last month the top diplomats of South Korea, Japan and China — North Korea’s key ally and Washington’s rival — reaffirmed the need to hold a trilateral summit at the “earliest” possible time.
Photo: Reuters
The US and its Western allies have increased “freedom of navigation” crossings by naval vessels in both the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, to reinforce that both are international waterways, angering Beijing.
“We will continue to stand up for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and freedom of navigation in the East and South China seas,” Sullivan told reporters in Seoul, alongside South Korean National Security Office Director Cho Tae-yong and Japanese National Security Secretariat Director-General Takeo Akiba.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has moved to strengthen ties between Seoul and long-standing ally Washington to counter rising threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.
He has also sought to resolve differences with Japan, another close US ally and Seoul’s former colonial ruler.
In August, the three allies said a “new chapter” of close three-way security cooperation was beginning after a historic summit at Camp David in the US.
Beijing had lodged complaints over a statement released at the summit at the time, in which the three nations criticized China’s “aggressive behavior” in the South China Sea.
In April, Yoon said tensions over Taiwan were due to “attempts to change the status quo by force.”
The comment resulted in a diplomatic tit-for-tat with China, South Korea’s biggest trading partner.
Last month, Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing made efforts to organize a trilateral leaders’ summit. The last such meeting was in 2019.
Washington last month said that military ties between North Korea and Russia were “growing and dangerous” and called on China to restrain Pyongyang.
Sullivan also said the three allies have launched “new trilateral initiatives” to “counter the threats” posed by North Korea, including “deepened collaboration” among their coast guards.
Washington is working with Seoul and Tokyo to strengthen defense cooperation, Sullivan said.
He said they also seek to improve response to North Korean missile testing and space launch activities, including a real-time information sharing arrangement on North Korean missile launches that the countries plan to start this month.
Cho said the three security advisers reaffirmed North Korea’s obligations under multiple UN Security Council resolutions that call for its denuclearization and ban any weapons trade with other countries.
“We agreed to strengthen a coordination among the three countries to secure the international community’s strict implementation” of the UN Security Council resolutions, Cho said.
Cho said the three also highly praised South Korea, the US, Japan and Australia announcing their own sanctions on North Korea over its spy satellite launch last month.
North Korea said it has the right to launch spy satellites to monitor US and South Korean military activities and enhance the threat of its nuclear-capable missiles.
The North successfully put a military spy satellite into orbit last month — with Seoul saying Pyongyang did so with Moscow’s help.
North Korea soon after said its eye in the sky was already providing images of major US and South Korean military sites.
Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have led a chorus of global condemnation of the North for violating multiple UN Security Council resolutions, which bar it from tests using ballistic technology, used in both missiles and space launch rockets.
Additional reporting by AP
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS