Taiwan, the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are working together to install undersea cables as a demonstration of digital solidarity, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.
Blinken talked about the cooperation in a speech he delivered at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.
He said that the US International Cyberspace and Digital Strategy launched by the US Department of State “treats digital solidarity as our North Star.”
Photo: AP
“Solidarity informs our approach not only to digital technologies, but to all key foundational technologies,” Blinken said.
Under the strategy, the US is to work with international partners “to shape the design, development, governance, and use of cyberspace and digital technologies,” the US Department of State said on Monday.
As part of the effort, the US has established partnerships with Taiwan, Japan, Australia and New Zealand to install and operate “a cable that will connect up to 100,000 people across the spread-out Pacific Islands,” as well as other similar projects in South America, Africa and the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
If undersea cables are disrupted or compromised, it could lead to isolation, national security risks or huge economic losses as they carry more than 95 percent of the world’s digital traffic across the ocean floor, he added.
Separately, Taiwan has signed four memorandums of understanding (MOU) with three nations under the New Southbound Policy to cooperate on transportation security, science, product assessment and disaster research, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Taiwan signed an MOU with Australia on April 2 to expand cooperation on the safety of maritime and railway transportation, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director Peter Lan (藍夏禮) told a news conference.
Under the MOU, the two sides are to work together on accident investigation, information security and technical training, he said.
Taipei and Canberra on Monday signed another MOU to strengthen cooperation on science and research in fields such as information and communication technology, supply chain resilience, biotechnology and net-zero transformation, Lan said.
On the same day, Taiwan signed an MOU with the Philippines to boost bilateral exchanges and share experiences on landslide and debris flow disasters, he said.
Taiwan last week signed an MOU with Indonesia on cooperation on standardization and conformity assessments, he added.
The MOU would help both sides better understand standards, regulations and certification regarding commodities to lower trade barriers and create a more convenient trade environment for businesses in the two nations, Lan said.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS