US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday discussed the importance of maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait at their meeting in Washington.
At a news conference after the meeting, Biden thanked Kishida for standing “shoulder to shoulder” with the US on a number of issues as the decades-long alliance between the two nations continues to grow.
Biden commended Kishida for “standing strong with the United States as we stand up for freedom of navigation, including in the South China Sea, and as we maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits; and taking the brave step of mending ties with the Republic of [South] Korea so we can all stand shoulder to shoulder together.”
Photo: New York Times / Bloomberg
On Kishida’s part, he said via an interpreter that he and Biden had underscored the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and confirmed their position to encourage peaceful resolution of the cross-strait issue.
In a joint statement issued after their meeting, Biden and Kishida expressed a common stance on Taiwan.
“We emphasize that our basic positions on Taiwan remain unchanged and reiterate the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of global security and prosperity. We encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues.”
Meanwhile, in a fact sheet about Kishida’s official visit to the US and a state dinner hosted by Biden, the White House noted that both countries will “collaborate with like-minded partners to build trusted and more resilient networks and intend to contribute funds to provide subsea cables in the Pacific region, including US$16 million towards subsea cable systems for Tuvalu.”
This “will connect it for the first time in history, as well as the Federated States of Micronesia,” the fact sheet said.
“In addition, Taiwan also plans to provide funding to deliver connectivity to Tuvalu,” it said.
Tuvalu is one of Taiwan’s 12 diplomatic allies.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday expressed its appreciation to Biden and Kishida for again publicly declaring their countries’ support for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
As China continues to step up its military provocations and gray-zone tactics against Taiwan, the joint statement after the summit again shows that the international community agrees on the importance of cross-strait peace, it said.
Taiwan welcomes the global community’s continued concern for peace and security across the Strait and will continue to play its part as a responsible member of the global community, working closely with like-minded partners like the US and Japan to promote regional peace, stability and prosperity, it added.
Additional reporting by CNA
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
A total of 41 US military personnel were stationed in Taiwan as of December last year, a US congressional report said on Friday last week ahead of Tuesday’s passage of an aid package that included US$8 billion for Taiwan. The Congressional Research Service in a report titled Taiwan Defense Issues for Congress said that according to the US Department of Defense’s Defense Manpower Data Center, 41 US military personnel were assigned for duty in Taiwan. Although the normalization of relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1979 included a vow to withdraw a military presence from Taiwan, “observers have indicated
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry