China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open.
Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino.
“Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and expansionist claims in the Indo-Pacific region,” Paparo said.
Photo: AFP
“Some call it the gray zone. My friend General Brawner from the Republic of the Philippines has a phrase called ICAD, and he has renamed the gray zone, which sounds otherwise benign and dull into ICAD — which is illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” he said.
“We will safeguard the international order characterized by transparency, cooperation, fair competition and the rule of law. We’ll bring all to bear in all domains, harnessing an integrated capability supporting partnerships to maintain peace and security while safeguarding sovereign rights,” he said.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who presided over the ceremony, criticized China over its increasingly coercive actions in the region, including in the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China seas.
Photo: Screen grab from the US Indo-Pacific Command’s X account
The US Indo-Pacific Command posted on X a photograph that included Chief of the General Staff Admiral Mei Chia-shu (梅家樹) among those present at the ceremony.
In other news, German Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock on Saturday did not rule out the possibility of a German frigate transiting the Taiwan Strait in the coming weeks.
Speaking during a state visit in New Zealand, Baerbock said that the Baden-Wurttemberg and a supply ship would tomorrow set off on a training mission in the Pacific, German news agency DPA reported.
Although the ships’ route would not be announced in advance, she said that the “right of peaceful passage” applied to the Taiwan Strait, suggesting the vessel might transit the Strait.
The International Industrial Talents Education Special (INTENSE) Program to attract foreigners to study and work in Taiwan will provide scholarships and a living allowance of up to NT$440,000 per person for two years beginning in August, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) told a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday. Pan was giving an update on the program’s implementation, a review of universities’ efforts to recruit international students and promotion of the Taiwan Huayu Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent (BEST) program. Each INTENSE Program student would be awarded a scholarship of up to NT$100,000 per year for up to
Singapore yesterday swore in Lawrence Wong (黃循財) as the city-state’s new prime minister in a ceremony broadcast live on television after Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) stepped down following two decades in office. Wong, formerly deputy prime minister, was inaugurated at the Istana government office shortly after 8pm to become the second person outside the Lee family to lead the nation. “I ... do solemnly swear that I will at all times faithfully discharge my duties as prime minister according to law, and to the best of my knowledge and ability, without fear or favor, affection or ill-will. So help me God,” the
BASIC OPERATIONS: About half a dozen navy ships from both countries took part in the days-long exercise based on the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea An unpublicized joint military exercise between Taiwan and the US in the Pacific Ocean last month was carried out in accordance with an international code, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. According to a Reuters report citing four unnamed sources, the two nations’ navies last month conducted joint drills in the Western Pacific. The drills were not made public at the time, but “about half-a-dozen navy ships from both sides, including frigates and supply and support vessels, participated in the days-long exercises,” Reuters reported, citing the sources. The drills were designed to practice “basic” operations such as communications, refueling and resupplies,
‘MONEY PIT’: The KMT’s more than NT$2 trillion infrastructure project proposals for eastern Taiwan lack professional input and financial transparency, the DPP said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said it would ask the Executive Yuan to raise a motion to oppose the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ infrastructure proposals and prepare to file for a constitutional interpretation if the KMT-dominated legislature forces their passage. The DPP caucus described the three infrastructure plans for transportation links to eastern Taiwan proposed by the KMT as “three money pit projects” that would cost more than NT$2 trillion (US$61.72 billion). It would ask the Executive Yuan to oppose public projects that would drain state financial resources, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said. It would also file for