The organizers of the multinational Joint Exercise Cobra Gold on Wednesday said that Taiwan’s listing as a participant in the regional exercises being staged in Thailand was an error that has since been corrected.
The Cobra Gold Combined Joint Information Bureau (CJIB) said in an e-mail about the delisting that it “acknowledges a transcription error in a recent news post regarding the participation of Taiwan in Cobra Gold 2025.”
The “inaccurate information” about Taiwan’s participation was due to “a misinterpretation during the transcription process” and was “inadvertently published on official platforms,” the CJIB said.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Korean Marine Corps command
“Upon identifying the error, the content was promptly corrected, and Taiwan was removed from the post and story,” the CJIB said.
However, it noted that the original post had been screen-captured and used by media in reports on the annual exercises, which are cosponsored by Thailand and the US, and are usually joined by about 30 nations.
“Taiwan is not a participant in Cobra Gold 25,” the CJIB said. “At no time has the US Department of Defense officially recognized Taiwan as a participant in Cobra Gold 2025.”
The CJIB’s response followed wide reporting on Tuesday about a CJIB post on Facebook, which listed Taiwan as a participant in the annual joint exercise, but was removed a few hours later.
The original post said in the opening paragraph that “more than 200 service members from the US, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan gathered on the parade ground at Camp Suranaree, Thailand, Feb. 25, to usher in the start of Cobra Gold 2025.”
In the revised version, “Taiwan” was removed from the post.
Due its diplomatic isolation, Taiwan is usually not allowed to join international military exercises, including those organized by the US.
Asked on Tuesday about the Cobra Gold 2025 exercises, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) said his ministry could not comment on issue, given “the lack of official diplomatic ties with all the countries involved.”
“We have full respect for the organizers’ decision on whether to make public such information,” Po said in response to the question of whether the original CJIB post on Facebook had accidentally revealed Taiwan’s secret participation in the exercises.
He hoped the controversy this year would not hinder Taiwan’s possible participation in regional military exercises in the future, he said.
Since its inception in 1982, Cobra Gold has evolved from a bilateral maritime exercise between the US and Thailand into the world’s longest-running multinational military exercise, embodying decades of cooperation and partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, according to the Web site of the US Indo-Pacific Command.
The exercises are being held this year from yesterday until Friday next week in Thailand.
As well as the other countries listed in the post, China, India and Australia are “limited participating nations,” while about 20 other nations are engaged as part of the Multinational Planning Augmentation Team, or as observer nations, bringing the total number of participating countries to about 30, with more than 8,000 personnel involved, according to the CJIB.
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