More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday.
The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said.
This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said.
Photo: screen grab from Defense Visual Information Distribution System’s Web site
The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added.
Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior official, the outlet said Taiwan has been a US partner in the drills since 2021.
Former US diplomat Joseph Cella was quoted by the outlet as telling a US House of Representatives hearing last year that Taiwanese military personnel have been training “in strategic and tactical battle operations” in Michigan.
In response to a request for comment, a US defense official told the Stars and Stripes that the Pentagon does not discuss Taiwan’s participation in US military exercises as a matter of long-standing policy.
In Taipei, Institute for National Security and Research analyst Mei Fu-shing (梅復興) said yesterday that collaborations between Taiwanese and US forces have steadily increased.
The US deployed live loitering munitions for the benefit of Taiwanese generals attending last year’s Northern Strike exercise, he said.
In related news, responding to US President Donald Trump saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) told him he would not invade Taiwan while Trump was in office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that Taiwan must rely on itself for its security.
Taiwan has over the past five years faced ramped-up military and political pressure from China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
Asked about Trump’s remarks, ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said the government closely monitors interactions between senior US and Chinese officials.
“Taiwan’s security must be achieved through its own efforts, so our country has been dedicating itself to raising its self-defense capabilities and resilience. Our country will keep working hard to do this,” Hsiao said.
The US is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier, although they have no formal diplomatic ties. There is also no defense treaty, so should China attack, Washington is under no obligation to help.
The US, which is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, has long stuck to a policy of “strategic ambiguity,” not making it clear whether it would respond militarily to a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
Trump made the invasion comments in an interview with Fox News ahead of last week’s talks in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday said that Taiwan was an internal matter that was for the Chinese people to resolve.
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