The government on Tuesday reaffirmed the nation’s right to conduct military exercises in and around a Taipei-controlled island in the disputed South China Sea after the Vietnamese government issued a protest over a drill held earlier this month.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) rejected Vietnam’s accusation that live-fire drills conducted by Taiwan in waters around Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) on Wednesday last week were a “serious violation of Vietnam’s sovereignty over the islands.”
“Vietnam resolutely opposes this act and asks Taiwan not to repeat similar violations,” Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Pham Thu Hang said during a press event on Monday.
Photo: Yang Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
MOFA said in its statement that Vietnam’s accusation is “totally unacceptable.”
The government of the Republic of China retains all rights over the South China Sea island and surrounding waters, in accordance with international law and the law of the sea, it said.
“Taiping Island is indisputably the territory of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and the government of the Republic of China has the authority to exercise all the rights of a sovereign state over Taiping Island and its relevant waters,” the statement said.
Citing President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2016 principles concerning South China Sea disputes, MOFA said that Tsai called for peaceful resolution of the issues to facilitate peace and stability in the region while upholding equality and shared prosperity.
Taiping, also known as Ba Binh in Vietnamese, the largest of the naturally occurring Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), lies 1,600km southwest of Kaohsiung and is administered as part of the special municipality’s Cijin District (旗津).
The island is also claimed by China and the Philippines.
Taiwan has control over the island, which is occupied by Taiwanese coast guard personnel trained by the Marine Corps and drills are held regularly.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service