The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked France over its concern about security in the Taiwan Strait, after the French Ministry of Armed Forces confirmed its naval presence in the area.
French Minister of Armed Forces Florence Parly on Tuesday told the French Senate that Paris would use its navy to demonstrate its adherence to international law and freedom of navigation, mentioning maneuvers by the signals intelligence vessel Dupuy-de-Lome in the Taiwan Strait as an example.
Parly made the remarks in response to a question by French Senator Olivier Cadic, one of the senators who visited Taiwan last week, if any concrete action was being taken to back Paris’ oft-expressed support for maintaining the cross-strait “status quo.”
Photo: AFP
In August, a Facebook page called New 27 Brigade reported the spotting of the French frigate Provence sailing in the waters off Changhua County’s coast, but the French Ministry of Armed Forces said at the time that no French naval vessels were in the Taiwan Strait.
In Taipei, Department of European Affairs Director-General Remus Chen (陳立國) told a news briefing yesterday that the ministry thanked the French parliament and its administration for its concern over the security situation in the Taiwan Strait and taking corresponding actions.
In the face of China’s military expansionism, European nations this year have raised concerns about security matters within the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region on several occasions, such as the G7, NATO and US-Europe summits, Chen said.
France, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands have dispatched vessels to the Indo-Pacific region to assert their freedom of navigation, he added.
Taiwan will continue to deepen its close partnerships with France and other like-minded countries to defend a rules-based international order, along with peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Chen said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS