US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged on Friday to deepen US bonds with Asia in order to tackle the global economic crisis and climate change as well as prevent nuclear proliferation.
On the eve of her tour of Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China, her first foreign trip, Clinton said in a speech she was “ready to deliver a message about America’s desire for more rigorous and persistent commitment and engagement.”
She added she was “ready to work with leaders in Asia to resolve the economic crisis ... [and] to strengthen our historic partnerships and alliances while developing deeper bonds with all nations.”
In her first foreign policy speech, delivered before the Asia Society, a non-profit educational institution, Clinton said she was also “ready to help prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Asia.”
Clinton added that North Korea’s nuclear program remained “the most acute challenge to stability in northeast Asia.”
She said US President Barack Obama’s administration would build a strong relationship with the Pyongyang if it scraps its nuclear program. The country alarmed the world in 2006 with the test of a nuclear device.
If Pyongyang “completely and verifiably” eliminates the program, Washington “will be willing to normalize bilateral relations, replace the peninsula’s longstanding armistice agreements with a permanent peace treaty.”
She said Washington would also “assist in meeting the energy and other economic needs of the North Korean people,” who face hunger and economic hardships.
Analysts say Clinton appears to have chosen Japan as her first stop to smooth feathers she ruffled when she wrote during the presidential campaign that the US-China relationship will be the most important one.
Clinton stressed that climate change would be a key topic on her visit, particularly with China’s rapid industrial growth.
“Climate change is not just an environmental nor an energy issue, but also has implications for our health, our economies and our security,” Clinton said.
Accompanying her is Todd Stern, her special envoy for climate change, to “begin the discussions that we hope will create the opportunities for cooperation,” she said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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