American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene yesterday reiterated that the US stands with its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region, adding that cooperation is more critical than ever.
Greene made the comments during his congratulatory remarks at the “Taiwan Forward: Driving Modernization Amid Shifting Global Dynamics” conference at National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei.
“The United States stands strong with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific,” he said. “We’re taking decisive actions to counter threats against economic resilience and advanced shared interests.”
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“Our cooperation is more critical than ever,” he said, adding that it makes “the US, Taiwan and all of our regional allies safer, stronger and more prosperous,” referring to remarks by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍).
While many countries have recognized Taiwan as a beacon of universal values and support the nation’s resilience and international participation, it has also in the past decade significantly reduced its investments in China, moving them to like-minded democratic countries, Greene said.
However, Taiwan still faces challenges, such as leading in artificial intelligence (AI), but falling behind in software development, which is partially due to reasonable concerns over China’s infiltration of Chinese-language large language models, he said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Greene also addressed the nation’s security “in the face of a relentlessly aggressive China that is using the full range of military, economic and diplomatic tools against Taiwan.”
“The United States has a stake in these questions and in Taiwan’s success,” he said, adding that the US and Taiwan are leading partners in advanced technology development, while the number of Taiwanese students studying in the US is growing and Taiwan is the US’ seventh-largest trading partner.
“Maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait is critical for the United States and the entire world,” the AIT director said.
Citing comments by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Greene said the US has a long-standing position on Taiwan that it would not abandon, which is that “we are against any forced, compelled, coercive change in the status of Taiwan.”
“The challenges Taiwan faces are not only challenges for Taiwan, but for the United States, and the entire world,” he said. “A strong, resilient Taiwan, and a stable and peaceful Indo-Pacific are the foundations of modernization.”
The conference — organized by the Taiwan Program at Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and cosponsored by NTU’s Office of International Affairs — featured panel discussions with academics from Stanford University, NTU and other universities in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, alongside Taiwanese industry leaders, on topics ranging from AI innovation and semiconductor, entrepreneurship, biomedical and healthcare advancements, and Taiwan’s demographic transformation.
Additional reporting by CNA
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred