Taiwan will continue to strengthen its self-defense capabilities and cooperation with like-minded countries to defend the rules-based international order, the Presidential Office said yesterday after defense ministers from the US, Japan and Australia in a joint statement highlighted the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
The US, Japan and Australia issued the statement after Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles, Japanese Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin convened the 14th Trilateral Defense Ministers’ Meeting in Darwin, Australia, on Sunday.
“We emphasize the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and call for the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues,” the statement said.
Photo: Screen grab from Japan Ministry of Defense’s X account
Taiwan thanks its international partners for placing attention and emphasis on the situation in the Taiwan Strait and the region at large, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said.
“The trilateral joint statement once again demonstrates that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is not only a critical regional issue, but also an essential element in global peace and prosperity,” she said.
The joint statement also reiterated strong opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait by force or coercion, and showed concern for issues in the East and South China seas.
“We reiterate our serious concern about destabilizing actions in the East and South China seas,” the joint statement said.
“It is important that all states are free to exercise rights and freedoms consistent with international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, including freedom of navigation and overflight and other lawful uses of the sea,” it added.
Kuo said Taiwan stands on the frontline of defense for democracy and is a responsible member of the region, as well as the international community.
“Facing an increasingly complex regional situation, Taiwan will continue to strengthen its self-defense capabilities and deepen its cooperative partnerships with the US, Japan, Australia and other like-minded countries to jointly defend the rules-based international order,” she added.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
US-CHINA SUMMIT: MOFA welcomed US reassurance of no change in its Taiwan policy; Trump said he did not comment when Xi talked of opposing independence US President Donald Trump yesterday said he has not made a decision on whether to move forward with a major arms package for Taiwan after hearing concerns about it from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Trump’s comments on Taiwan came as he flew back to Washington after wrapping up critical talks in which both leaders said important progress was made in stabilizing US-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran and Taiwan. “I will make a determination,” Trump said, adding: “I’ll be making decisions. But, you know, I think the last thing we need right
RSS