The US government on Friday confirmed that it conducted military exercises with Japan, but declined to comment on the scenario of the drills, which a Financial Times report said involved combating China to defend Taiwan.
US Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby made the remarks at a news conference in response to a report on Thursday by the Financial Times.
Citing two unnamed US defense officials, the report said that the US and Japan have conducted secret war games around the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), known as the Senkakus in Japan, which were billed as disaster relief drills, but were intended as joint military exercises to fight China in a dispute over Taiwan.
Photo: AP
Taiwan, the US and Japan have shared military aircraft identification codes since 2017, it added.
Japan had requested that the US share with it plans to defend Taiwan, but the US Department of Defense instead opted to enhance military cooperation with Tokyo in phases, it said.
“The eventual goal was for the allies to create an integrated war plan for Taiwan,” one official was quoted as saying.
Taiwanese experts said that news of the government sharing military aircraft identification codes with the US and Japan was a positive national security development.
Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), an associate research fellow at the Institute of National Security and Defense Research, said that code-sharing is a necessary step before Taiwan, the US and Japan can conduct joint operations concerning the Taiwan Strait.
The codes are used by identification friend or foe (IFF) systems to identify aircraft, which increases engagement speed, he said.
“There were reports that Taiwan and the US are sharing the codes, so it makes sense that there is a trilateral arrangement,” he added.
The US is increasingly making public the advisers and activities of its security cooperation brigade in Taiwan, and broadening its exchanges in tactics, operations and strategy with the nation’s forces, he said.
Trilateral military cooperation must be allowed to develop at its own pace, and the process should not be rushed, he added.
The three countries had an understanding to share IFF codes, which is an important import breakthrough in relations, a source familiar with the matter said.
Sharing the codes means that Taiwan does not have to treat US military airplanes as unidentified aircraft in the Taipei Flight Information Region, which boosts flight safety and military efficiency, and conserves wear and tear on fighter jets, they said.
Erich Shih (施孝瑋), editor-in-chief of the Military and Aviation News Web site, said the arrangement would allow Taiwan to identify friendly US and Japanese aircraft.
If the US and Japanese aircraft were unknown, the military would have to intercept them with fighters or other air defense assets, he said.
The Air Force Command Headquarters said it had no knowledge of the article.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
RSS