The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked the US and South Korea for showing their concern for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, after US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday in a joint statement underscored the importance of cross-strait peace and stability.
The comment echoed a similar statement by Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on April 16 and a joint communique of G7 foreign ministers on May 5, the ministry said.
Taiwan has been playing a key role in regional stability and prosperity, given its important location in the first island chain of East Asia, it said, adding that the government would continue to work with the US and other like-minded partners to defend democracy and the rules-based international order.
Photo: AP
Biden wants Moon to take a strong stance on China’s activity toward Taiwan and other provocative moves Beijing has made in the region.
Biden on Friday also said he and Moon are “deeply concerned” about the situation with North Korea, adding that he would deploy a new special envoy to the region to help refocus efforts on pressing Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
Meanwhile, Moon welcomed “America’s return” to the world stage and said both leaders pledged in their meeting to work closely toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Biden told a joint news conference with Moon that he was dispatching career diplomat Sung Kim, who previously served as ambassador to South Korea, to serve as the special envoy to the region.
Moon said the move by Biden “reflects the firm commitment of the US for exploring diplomacy and its readiness for dialogue with North Korea.”
Biden also announced that the US would vaccinate 550,000 South Korean service members who serve alongside US forces on the peninsula.
This marks the first commitment by the Biden administration for what it plans to do with the 80 million vaccine doses it aims to distribute globally in the next six weeks.
Biden has said he hopes to use domestically produced vaccines as a modern-day “arsenal of democracy,” a reference to the US effort to arm allies in World War II. At the same time, the White House has pledged not to attach policy conditions to countries receiving the doses as global vaccine diplomacy heats up.
Moon traveled to Washington seeking renewed diplomatic urgency by the US on curbing North Korea’s nuclear program, even as the White House signaled that it is taking a longer view on the issue.
The two also discussed coordination on vaccine distribution, climate change and regional security concerns spurred by China.
Their meeting was Biden’s second in-person session with a foreign leader because of the COVID-19 pandemic. His first was with Suga.
Moon said afterward that he and Biden spoke “like old friends” and emphasized the need for cooperation on security issues in the region.
“The most urgent common task that our two countries must undertake is achieving complete denuclearization and permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula,” he said.
Biden did not rule out meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
However, in a veiled reference to former US president Donald Trump’s charm offensive with Kim, Biden said he would not replicate the efforts of the “recent past.”
Trump met face-to-face with the leader on three occasions and exchanged what he called “love letters” with him.
“I would not give him all that he’s looking for,” Biden said of Kim, namely “international recognition.”
His formal talks with Moon in the afternoon ran long, Biden said in earlier remarks, because “I enjoyed the meeting so much that it caused us to move everything back.”
Additional reporting by Lin Chia-nan
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS