American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene and President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday together attended a ceremony launching a civic defense and disaster preparedness training course in New Taipei City.
The opening ceremony of 2.0 Take Action — a first aid education and training course to hone the skills of frontline responders in major disaster incidents, co-organized by the AIT and Taiwan Development Association for Disaster Medical Teams — in the city’s Wulai District (烏來) was the third meeting of the pair since the US diplomat took office in July.
After praising the course’s mudslide disaster preparedness scenario, Lai participated in an exercise by helping bandage volunteers who were pretending to be injured.
Photo: Wong Yu-huang, Taipei Times
The mother of the child who was pretending to be injured even urged him to hurry up, Lai joked, adding that the interaction showed how seriously the participants took the exercise.
Greene said he is glad that Taiwan and the US are cooperating on humanitarian and disaster relief efforts, and that more than 2,000 people have participated in similar first aid education and training courses in 13 cities and counties in the past three years.
Taiwan’s fast response to and recovery from Typhoon Kong-rey late last month and early this month serves as a role model for the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
National Chung Hsing University Graduate Institute of International Politics professor Chen Mu-min (陳牧民) said that Lai and Greene appearing in public together has diplomatic significance.
The US Department of State trains its diplomats well, so it is careful regarding public appearances and photo opportunities with heads of state, meaning that Lai and Greene’s appearances together imply that the Taiwan-US relationship has become stronger, Chen said.
Shortly after taking office, Greene on July 10 met with Lai and stressed the US would strongly support Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, and that Taipei and Washington have common and long-term interests in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
On Sept. 14, Greene met with Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) at an emergency response event organized by the Forward Alliance think tank in New Taipei City, where he said that “resilience, security and connectivity” were priorities for relations between Taiwan and the US.
He also praised Lai’s administration for establishing the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee.
On Sept. 20, Lai attended a mass earthquake disaster relief drill, which included international participants, in Chiayi County, where he again met with Greene, as well as Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Deputy Representative Takashi Hattori.
After the first Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee meeting on Sept. 26, AIT Managing Director Ingrid Larson said the US encourages and applauds the Lai administration’s efforts to bolster Taiwan’s whole-of-society resilience.
Chen, a former deputy representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India, said that when diplomats are willing to appear in the same photo with politicians, it means they support the event, so Greene’s public appearances with Lai or Hsiao at disaster training courses carries diplomatic significance.
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