The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday thanked US President Joe Biden for his remarks about the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait in his UN speech.
Biden delivered the speech, his final address to the UN as US president, at the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York, emphasizing US support for stability in the Strait, condemning military aggression in the South China Sea and committing to deepening security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
Biden said the US is “unabashed” in its pursuit of its goals, including protecting its lead in advanced technologies.
Photo: AFP
“At the same time, we’re going to continue to strengthen our network of alliances and partnerships across the Indo-Pacific,” Biden said. “These partnerships are not against any nation. They are building blocks for a free, open, secure, and peaceful Indo-Pacific.”
Biden’s remarks came after several days of meetings between US officials and representatives of major allies, including a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) leaders’ summit, meetings between G7 foreign ministers, a trilateral discussion between the US, Japan and South Korea, and US-Australia talks.
The G7 foreign ministers’ statement on Tuesday said the group supports “Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations as a member where statehood is not a prerequisite and as an observer or guest where it is.”
The group reaffirmed that “maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is indispensable to international security and prosperity,” and called for “the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues.”
There “is no change in the basic position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including stated ‘one China’ policies,” the statement said.
MOFA thanked the countries for their support and emphasized that Taiwan would continue to work with the US and other like-minded nations to safeguard peace, stability and prosperity in the Taiwan Strait and the region.
After Monday’s trilateral meeting between the US, Japan and South Korea, the countries in a statement said that “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the international community.”
Although Taiwan was not mentioned by name in the annual Quad Leaders’ Summit’s joint statement, the group, which is made up of the US, Australia, India and Japan, called for “maintenance of peace, safety, security and stability” in the Indo-Pacific region.
Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after their meeting on Friday last week said that they discussed maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait, as they expressed their concerns regarding China’s “coercive and destabilizing” activities.
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