President William Lai (賴清德) discussed Taiwan’s position and strategies to strengthen the global defense of democracy, economic security and supply chain resilience in a video address to be shown at the Concordia Annual Summit in New York.
The speech, titled “Better Together for a Safer World — Taiwan’s Role in the Age of Uncertainty,” focuses on Lai’s touchstone policies, including values-based diplomacy, whole-of-society defense resilience and supply chain resilience, the Presidential Office said.
The speech is to be streamed at the event at 9am Taipei time today.
Photo: Screen grab from the Presidential Office’s Web site
Lai began his speech by saying that Aug. 15 marked 80 years since the end of World War II, a conflict that taught the world “aggression fails, unity prevails.”
“Taiwan stands on the front line of the first island chain in the Indo-Pacific and directly faces the threat of authoritarianism,” he said, describing the global landscape as “volatile.”
“Taiwan has long faced military intimidation, information warfare and other compound threats from China,” he said. “Democratic partnerships [are] the sole path to maintaining lasting peace, and building a stable and prosperous world.”
“Taiwan will continue to be a pilot for world peace and a force for global prosperity,” he added.
Lai outlined three key strategies under his administration.
First, values-based diplomacy would allow Taiwan to work closely with like-minded countries on the foundation of respect for human rights and rule of law, he said.
Despite its exclusion from the UN, Taiwan has consistently proven that it is a reliable global partner under the slogan “Taiwan Can Help,” Lai said.
Second, Taiwan would continue to bolster supply chain resilience as a key player in the global semiconductor supply chain, leveraging advantages in chip manufacturing and end-to-end industrial clusters, he said.
Third, Taiwan has been working to enhance its national defense capabilities through his whole-of-society defense and resilience initiative, and plans to achieve defense spending of 3 percent of GDP by next year and 5 percent by 2030, to align with NATO standards, Lai said.
Taiwan is “advancing cybersecurity, combating disinformation and enhancing our citizens’ media literacy,” he added.
“We firmly believe that there is strength in unity, and that we can achieve a bright future only by working together,” Lai said in his concluding remarks.
The New York-based non-profit organization Concordia hosts the “largest and most inclusive nonpartisan forum alongside the UN General Assembly,” discussing topics such as global economy and trade, democracy, security, and geopolitical risks, according to program information.
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