The US remains focused long-term on the Indo-Pacific region, despite concerns over Russian aggression toward Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday.
Blinken is in Melbourne, Australia, for a meeting today with his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan.
The four nations form the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a bloc of Indo-Pacific democracies that was created to counter China’s regional influence.
Photo: AFP
“There are a few other things going on in the world right now, some of you may have noticed,” Blinken said in his first public address since arriving in Australia on Wednesday.
“We have a bit of a challenge with Ukraine and Russian aggression,” he said. “We’re working 24/7 on that, but we know, the [US] president [Joe Biden] knows better than anyone else, that so much of this century is going to be shaped by what happens here in the Indo-Pacific region.”
The Indo-Pacific is the fastest-growing region in the world, accounting for two-thirds of global economic growth over the past five years and home to half of the world’s population, Blinken said.
What matters in the region matters around the world, and challenges such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be tackled by any nation alone, he said.
“More than ever before, we need partnerships, we need alliances, we need coalitions of countries willing to put their efforts, their resources, their minds into tackling these problems,” Blinken said.
“What really drives us is a shared vision” of a “free and open society,” he added.
Blinken’s trip is designed to reinforce Washington’s interests in Asia and its intent to push back against increasing Chinese assertiveness in the region.
He is also to visit Fiji, and discuss concerns about North Korea with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Hawaii.
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne, who is to chair today’s meeting, said that the agenda would include COVID-19 vaccine distribution, cyber and critical technologies, countering disinformation, terrorism, maritime security and climate change.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS