Taiwan and the US are improving resilience and innovating operational concepts to maintain the capability to deter Beijing from attacking across the Taiwan Strait, a senior US defense official said on Wednesday.
Keeping Taiwan-US deterrence capabilities strong through improving bilateral cooperation has been a constant task for the US government, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner told the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
A war in the Taiwan Strait is not imminent or inevitable, he said, citing US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Photo: screen grab from the American Enterprise Institute’s YouTube channel
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has made strides in developing a new concept of operations needed to overcome the unique operational challenges posed by the western Pacific region, Ratner said.
The US military is enhancing the dispersion, mobility, resilience and lethality of its forces in the region to deter China from acts of aggression, he said.
The global implications of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are underscored in private and public diplomatic interactions almost every day, he said, adding that more countries are emphasizing to the US the importance of this.
Taiwan can significantly boost deterrence by improving the resilience of its armed forces and society, Ratner said.
Efforts by the Taiwanese armed forces to enhance deterrence via refining operational planning, developing capabilities and conducting exercises have been heartening to the US, he said, adding that developments are positive across the board.
The consistent policy of the US is to maintain the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait and oppose any unilateral attempts to change it, he said.
Ratner is a frequent contributor to the American Enterprise Institute and a policy veteran at the US Department of Defense.
Separately, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink told the event that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to emphasize Washington’s concern with Beijing’s escalating use of coercion against Taiwan.
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