Taiwan, the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are working together to install undersea cables as a demonstration of digital solidarity, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.
Blinken talked about the cooperation in a speech he delivered at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.
He said that the US International Cyberspace and Digital Strategy launched by the US Department of State “treats digital solidarity as our North Star.”
Photo: AP
“Solidarity informs our approach not only to digital technologies, but to all key foundational technologies,” Blinken said.
Under the strategy, the US is to work with international partners “to shape the design, development, governance, and use of cyberspace and digital technologies,” the US Department of State said on Monday.
As part of the effort, the US has established partnerships with Taiwan, Japan, Australia and New Zealand to install and operate “a cable that will connect up to 100,000 people across the spread-out Pacific Islands,” as well as other similar projects in South America, Africa and the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
If undersea cables are disrupted or compromised, it could lead to isolation, national security risks or huge economic losses as they carry more than 95 percent of the world’s digital traffic across the ocean floor, he added.
Separately, Taiwan has signed four memorandums of understanding (MOU) with three nations under the New Southbound Policy to cooperate on transportation security, science, product assessment and disaster research, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Taiwan signed an MOU with Australia on April 2 to expand cooperation on the safety of maritime and railway transportation, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director Peter Lan (藍夏禮) told a news conference.
Under the MOU, the two sides are to work together on accident investigation, information security and technical training, he said.
Taipei and Canberra on Monday signed another MOU to strengthen cooperation on science and research in fields such as information and communication technology, supply chain resilience, biotechnology and net-zero transformation, Lan said.
On the same day, Taiwan signed an MOU with the Philippines to boost bilateral exchanges and share experiences on landslide and debris flow disasters, he said.
Taiwan last week signed an MOU with Indonesia on cooperation on standardization and conformity assessments, he added.
The MOU would help both sides better understand standards, regulations and certification regarding commodities to lower trade barriers and create a more convenient trade environment for businesses in the two nations, Lan said.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RSS