Taiwan is part of the solution to challenges posed by China and North Korea in the Indo-Pacific region with its close relations with the US and Japan, a former NATO commander said yesterday.
The expansion of China’s military force and North Korea’s nuclear program pose a threat to regional security, retired US Navy admiral James Stavridis, who was the alliance’s supreme commander from 2009 to 2013, told the one-day Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue in Taipei.
With China’s naval capacity continuing to expand and its warships traveling around the world, Stavridis said that Beijing is becoming a significant player in the Indo-Pacific region.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
China’s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea is even more worrying, he said.
Stavridis said Taiwan is a strong friend and partner to the US, as well as nations in the Indo-Pacific region.
As the world’s 22nd-largest economy, despite only having 23 million people, with capable and professional armed forces, Stavridis said that the nation is part of the solution to the challenges in the region.
Possible solutions to the challenges are in “collective action together” with like-minded countries, particularly South Korea and Japan, he said.
Facing these challenges, Stavridis said that regional nations and the US should remain in constant dialogue with each other and with China, striving for solutions through diplomatic means, as well as collective defense.
“If we work at this together, we can create peace ahead,” he said.
The event was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Taipei-based Prospect Foundation, the US-based Center for New American Security and the Japan-based Sasakawa Peace Foundation.
Former US deputy national security adviser Nadia Schadlow also spoke at the seminar, sharing her insights into Taiwan’s possible role in the US-initiated Indo-Pacific strategy, the ministry said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
RSS