The leaders of Japan, South Korea and the US on Friday reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait following a historic summit at Camp David in Maryland.
“Today, we’ve reaffirmed — all reaffirmed our shared commitment to maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” US President Joe Biden told a news conference after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.
The first-ever standalone summit between Biden, Kishida and Yoon focused on expanding security, economic and technology ties between the three countries.
Photo: AP
The three countries agreed to engage in annual multi-domain military exercises, improve their information sharing and boost ballistic missile defense cooperation, Biden said.
He said they would establish a communications hotline to discuss responses to threats, while the leaders also agreed to share real-time data on North Korea and to hold summits every year.
“Our countries are stronger and the world will be safer as we stand together, and I know this is a belief that all three share,” Biden said, praising the “political courage” of Kishida and Yoon in turning the page on historical animosity.
Three documents were issued after the meeting: the Commitment to Consult, the Camp David Principles and the Spirit of Camp David.
“We reaffirm the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the international community,” the latter two state.
“Recognizing that there is no change in our basic positions on Taiwan, we call for a peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues,” the Camp David Principles say, while the Spirit of Camp David reiterates the point.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a news release yesterday thanked the three governments for expressing concern about the situation in the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan remains committed to working with like-minded partners to foster peace, stability and prosperity within the region, it said.
“The purpose of our trilateral security cooperation is and will remain to promote and enhance peace and stability throughout the region,” Biden, Kishida and Yoon said in a joint statement.
Biden maintained, as have US, South Korean and Japanese officials, that the summit “was not about China,” but was focused on broader security issues.
Yet, the leaders in their concluding statement noted China’s “dangerous and aggressive” action in the South China Sea, and said they “strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the waters of the Indo-Pacific.”
Yoon noted in particular the threat posed by North Korea, saying the three leaders had agreed to improve “our joint response capabilities to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, which have become sophisticated more than ever.”
He said as the three appeared before reporters that “today will be remembered as a historic day, where we established a firm institutional basis and commitments to the trilateral partnership.”
Japan’s Kishida said before the talks that “the fact that we, the three leaders, have got together in this way, I believe means that we are indeed making a new history as of today. The international community is at a turning point in history.”
The visitors spoke in their home languages, using translators.
Additional reporting by AFP
CRITICAL MOVE: TSMC’s plan to invest another US$100 billion in US chipmaking would boost Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global market, the premier said The government would ensure that the most advanced chipmaking technology stays in Taiwan while assisting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in investing overseas, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The statement follows a joint announcement by the world’s largest contract chipmaker and US President Donald Trump on Monday that TSMC would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next four years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US, which would include construction of three new chip fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research and development center. The government knew about the deal in advance and would assist, Presidential
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS