President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday drew a parallel between himself and US President Barack Obama, who recently won a Nobel Peace Prize, saying that other countries’ support for his conciliatory approach to cross-strait policy has boosted his confidence in promoting peace in the Taiwan Strait.
Ma said he felt “gratified” that Obama had received the Nobel Peace Prize and that it signified the judging committee recognized his concept of peace.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
The decision to hand Obama the prize stunned many and triggered a storm of criticism that the award was premature and a potential liability for him. Some critics have said that there was a risk the prize could backfire on Obama by raising expectations even higher and providing ammunition to his critics.
Ma said that since he took office in May last year, he has worked hard to reduce tension in the Taiwan Strait.
“The Taiwan Strait was originally a flashpoint, but now the peril has diminished dramatically, making the region safer than before,” he said.
The US, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, as well as countries in Southeast Asia and Europe have recognized and expressed support for the lessening cross-strait tension, he said.
This has given him more confidence in pushing for peace in the Taiwan Strait, the president said.
Ma made the remarks while meeting a US delegation led by Duane Miskulin, chairman of the American Veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, at the Presidential Office yesterday morning.
As he had promised during his presidential campaign to turn the defense force into a volunteer-based army, Ma said, he planned to recruit an all-volunteer military.
The ratio of recruits to conscripts rose to 6 to 4 this year, and he hoped to see the ratio increase to 7 to 3 by next year, Ma said.
He said he hoped to establish an all-volunteer military by 2015.
The Ministry of National Defense has also mapped out a plan to reduce the size of the armed forces from 275,000 people to 210,000 by 2015, he added.
Ma said an all-volunteer military would help improve the quality of the country’s armed forces and reduce unnecessary manpower.
“We hope to build an army that is small but strong and outstanding,” he said.
Also See: Defense report lacking in vision
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
SECURITY RISK: A university student sent a general alarm signal to THSRC’s control center on April 5, causing four operating trains to temporarily halt services The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday pledged to submit a report on ways to harden the communication security of railway systems after a university student hacked into Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) radio communications system and disrupted operations of four high-speed rail trains last month. Investigation by the police and prosecutors found that the university student and radio enthusiast, surnamed Lin (林), first used a software-defined radio (SDR) filter to analyze THSRC signals, downloaded the data to a computer, cracked the parameters and then programmed the codes into his radio devices. Lin then sent a general alarm signal to
RSS