The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday hinted that Taiwan might join forces with the Philippines to protect navigational freedoms, days after Beijing blocked Philippine supply ships in the South China Sea.
The ministry made the comment when asked whether Taipei would be willing to join forces with the Philippines to protect the latter from increasingly aggressive activities by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy and China Coast Guard.
Taiwan “is willing to cooperate with any other nation with shared values in areas of common concern, including maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacfic region,” it wrote in a statement.
Photo: AFP
A Chinese reconnaissance aircraft intruded into Japanese airspace on Monday, a day before China’s military and coast guard vessels blocked Philippine supply ships from carrying out replenishment operations at Sabina Shoal (Xianbin, 仙濱暗沙), which Taiwan also claims.
MOFA said China’s frequent use of illegal, coercive and unpeaceful measures against other nations’ ships and its incursion into Japanese airspace had increased regional tensions.
Beijing has been mounting an increasing number of incursions into Taiwanese and Japanese air defense identification and exclusive economic zones in an escalation of regional tensions, it said, adding that China and Russia have conducted provocative naval drills.
Beijing has deployed more than 100 ships to disrupt Philippine replenishment missions and used the rights of protection as “pretext for ... illegal, threatening, coercive and other nonpeaceful means to interfere with the navigation of other countries’ vessels,” MOFA said.
Taiwan calls on all parties to resolve disputes peacefully by following international law, it said.
Beijing “poses a significant threat to the security of Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region,” it said.
“China’s behavior — which MOFA strongly condemns — has compromised regional peace and stability,” it said, adding that Taiwan “urges like-minded nations to jointly counter China’s authoritarian expansion.”
The global community has increasingly recognized that freedom of navigation and overflight is crucial to peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region, it said, citing statements from the G7 earlier this year.
“Taiwan calls on all involved parties to exercise restraint and follow the UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea,” MOFA said.
“As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan will continue to cooperate with the US, Japan and other like-minded nations to defend a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” it added.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
SECOND SPEECH: All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist the CCP, despite their differences, the president said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday discussed how pro-Taiwan and pro-Republic of China (ROC) groups can agree to maintain solidarity on the issue of protecting Taiwan and resisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The talk, delivered last night at Taoyuan’s Hakka Youth Association, was the second in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. Citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) slogan that solidarity brings strength, Lai said it was a call for political parties to find consensus amid disagreements on behalf of bettering the nation. All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist
By refusing to agree spending increases to appease US President Donald Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to derail a summit that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte needs to run smoothly for the sake of the military alliance’s future survival. Ahead of yesterday’s gathering in The Hague, Netherlands, things were going off the rails. European officials have expressed irritation at the spoiler role that Sanchez is playing when their No. 1 task is to line up behind a pledge to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Rutte needed to keep Spain in line while preventing others such as Slovakia
RSS