Taiwan is working to strengthen “substantive” relations with the US, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday when asked about the future of the relationship following comments from prominent US politicians calling for closer ties between the two nations.
Formal diplomatic recognition “admittedly cannot be achieved overnight,” but “we take strengthening the substantive relationship between the two sides as our greatest effort at present,” Su told a hearing at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
He was responding to a question from Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Chiu Chen-yuan (邱臣遠) over whether the government intends to maintain “pragmatic” relations with Washington, or is looking to establish more formal diplomatic ties.
Photo: CNA
Chiu cited increasingly vocal appeals from US politicians to deepen ties with Taiwan in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including from former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who during a visit to the nation earlier this month called for formal diplomatic recognition.
Pompeo repeated his call in an interview with the Washington-based Hudson Institute published on Monday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday responded by saying that Taiwan cherishes the former state secretary’s steadfast friendship, but added that his comments are those of a private citizen and it would decline to comment further.
Former American Institute in Taiwan director William Stanton at a forum on Saturday said that he does not foresee any major changes in US engagement any time soon, adding that practical measures are more important than diplomatic recognition.
Su told legislators that the nation is happy to see these and other expressions of “rock-solid” support for the Taiwan-US relationship, but establishing diplomatic or other formal ties would “come naturally when the conditions are ripe.”
Meanwhile, National Endowment for Democracy president and chief executive Damon Wilson yesterday said he intentionally chose Taiwan as his first stop in Asia since assuming office in July last year to demonstrate that “we stand with Taiwan.”
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received Wilson at the Presidential Office, where the two discussed the importance of democracies coming together to counter rising authoritarianism.
“We are committed to safeguarding Taiwan’s democracy and to working with Taiwan to safeguard democracies around the world,” Wilson said.
He also touted the choice of Taiwan as host of the World Movement for Democracy’s 11th Global Assembly later this year, a decision he announced at a news conference on Monday.
“Taiwan will be at the center of a global agenda for freedom, as part of integrating Taiwanese perspective into the world, ensuring Taiwan is a hub of democrats,” Wilson said.
“The assembly will gather democratic leaders and activists from around the world in what is a consequential moment for freedom,” he said, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The war once again exposes the need for democratic nations to join together to oppose authoritarianism, Tsai said, adding that she looks forward to sharing Taiwan’s experiences of bolstering the resilience of democracy.
Calling the Ukrainians’ defense of their homeland “through a whole-of-society approach” inspiring, she expressed the wish for Taiwan to participate in defense exchanges to learn from other nations’ experiences.
Taiwan is also excited to share its experiences in countering misinformation at the Oct. 24 to 27 assembly, which is to advance cooperation and solidarity among democracies, she added.
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan and Lin Liang-sheng
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS