Taiwan hopes to strengthen cooperation with the US in critical technologies and innovations to jointly build a safe and resilient “non-red supply chain,” President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.
Lai made the remarks at a meeting with former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger and retired US rear admiral Mark Montgomery at the Presidential Office in Taipei.
“Increased cooperation between authoritarian countries is posing risks and challenges to the geopolitical landscape and regional security,” Lai said. “Only by bolstering our defense capabilities can we demonstrate effective deterrence and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and around the world.”
Photo: Screen grab from the Presidential Office’s Flickr page
“Taiwan will continue to improve its self-defense capabilities. We also hope to strengthen the Taiwan-US partnership in such fields as security, trade and the economy, and energy,” he said.
“In addition, we will advance cooperation in critical and innovative technologies and jointly build secure and resilient non-red supply chains. This will ensure that Taiwan, the US and democratic partners around the world maintain a technological lead,” he said.
“We believe that closer Taiwan-US exchanges and cooperation not only benefit national security and development, but also align with the common economic interests of Taiwan and the US,” he said.
The president also welcomed and thanked Pottinger and Montgomery for visiting Taiwan again, and continuing to enhance exchanges between the two nations and to show their firm support for the nation.
Lai said Pottinger and former US National Security Council official Ivan Kanapathy visited him in June last year and gave him a book they coauthored — The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan — as well as shared many ideas on Taiwan-US relations and regional issues.
The traditional Chinese character translation of the book would be published in Taiwan soon, Lai said, adding that he believes readers in Taiwan would benefit a lot from the valuable ideas in the book.
The Presidential Office quoted Pottinger as saying that Lai’s announcement about Taiwan aiming to increase defense spending to above 3 percent of its GDP is a good move to increase Taiwan and the US’ joint deterrence.
Echoing Lai’s remark that “peace is achieved through strength,” Pottinger said he believes this is the correct direction for Taiwan and the US, at a time when autocratic and aggressive governments are rising, it said.
Quoting former US president George Washington, Pottinger said: “To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.”
That explains the meaning of “peace through strength,” he said, adding that he was looking forward to exchanging ideas on the issue with Lai.
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