President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that Taiwan is to work with Asian-Pacific partners to promote peace and sustainable development, while pledging stronger defense capabilities and economic security.
At this year’s general assembly of the Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians’ Union (APPU) in Taipei, Lai said that Taiwan would “demonstrate its determination to safeguard regional peace,” and that peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait are “indispensable to security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”
Defense spending is to exceed 3 percent of GDP next year, under a Cabinet proposal pending legislative approval, and the government aims to raise the figure to 5 percent by 2030, he said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan is also boosting economic cooperation with the US, Japan and the EU, reversing its past reliance on China, Lai said.
The nation’s investment in China accounted for 7.5 percent of total outbound investment last year, down from 83.8 percent in 2010, he added.
Taiwan would also bolster exchanges with allies and like-minded partners through the APPU and other platforms, while remaining open to engagement with Beijing on equal terms, Lai said.
The assembly included Taiwanese lawmakers from across party lines and parliamentarians from Japan, Guam, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Tuvalu and the Northern Mariana Islands.
The group was founded by former Japanese prime minister Nobusuke Kishi in 1965 as the Asian Parliamentarians’ Union and later expanded to promote cooperation across the Asia-Pacific region.
Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) said that the APPU was “an important bridge” for inter-parliamentary exchange, adding that Taiwan looked forward to building closer, mutually beneficial partnerships with member states.
Han also urged parliamentarians to continue supporting Taiwan’s participation in international organizations and events, saying that its inclusion would bolster global capacity to address climate change, health crises and economic volatility.
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