President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday emphasized Taiwan’s determination to defend itself and cooperate with other democracies to handle global challenges, in a meeting with former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman James Moriarty.
The nation is to continue strengthening its defensive capabilities and show its resolve to defend itself and democracy, he was cited as saying by the Presidential Office in a statement.
Taiwan would also maintain its cooperation with the US and other like-minded nations in dealing with global challenges posed by pandemics and climate change, he said.
Photo: CNA
Lai thanked Moriarty for his support of the nation and contributions to its ties with the US, adding that he hoped the bilateral relationship would be strengthened to defend peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
The president welcomed Moriarty’s visit to Taiwan and said that the two have met multiple occasions during his tenures as Tainan mayor, premier and vice president.
Moriarty is counted as a personal friend and a good friend of Taiwan, who expanded the scope of bilateral relations and deepened their development, Lai said.
After departing from the AIT, Morarity continued his contributions to Taiwan by urging Washington to strengthen military cooperation between the two nations, he said.
Lai also thanked the US Congress for implementing the Taiwan Relations Act, the “six assurances” and other promises to Taiwan, which bolstered its defenses against authoritarian expansionism.
Moriarty said his personal feelings for Taiwan and commitment to keeping promises reflect the shared views of the US public.
Taiwan-US relations are based not only on common interests, but also on the two nations’ common values and principles, he said.
Peace and stability are the most important of Taipei and Washington’s mutual interests, Moriarty said, adding that the two must insulate their economies and societies from foreign interference.
Taiwan and the US face numerous internal and external challenges, but Moriarty said he was confident that cooperation and solidarity would continue to strengthen the alliance of democracies.
Moriarty thanked Lai and Taiwanese for his reception, their friendship with the US, and their support of democracy and other common values.
Separately, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said the long-standing and constant view of the government is that war is best prevented by credible deterrence through strength.
He made the comments on the sidelines of a question-and-answer session at the legislature in Taipei, saying that Taiwan would continue working toward being part of the US Indo-Pacific strategy of systematic deterrence against Beijing’s adventurism.
The goal is to improve defensive capabilities to compel Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to continually push back the timeline for taking over Taiwan, Koo said.
The US has done much to buttress security cooperation with allies including Japan and the Philippines, he said, adding that Taiwan’s strategically valuable location on the first island chain yields no alternative but to join the US-led security alliance.
Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS