A deputy foreign minister is to attend this week’s meeting of Pacific island leaders in Tonga, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, as China and the US jostle for influence in the region.
The Pacific is also an area of competition between Taipei and Beijing, as China whittles away at the number of countries that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Three countries — Palau, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands — have stuck with Taipei.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) would hold a summit with its three Pacific allies to bolster its partnership with them and other “like-minded countries,” a reference to Western democracies such as the US and Australia, the ministry said.
Photo: Reuters
In January, shortly after President William Lai (賴清德) won the presidential election, Nauru switched ties from Taiwan to China, in what Taipei said was part of a sustained Chinese pressure campaign.
In 2018, Nauru, then still an ally of Taiwan, criticized an “insolent” China for speaking out of turn at the Pacific Islands Forum. Nauru had recognized China before, from 2002 to 2005.
Taiwan has participated in the forum since 1993 as a development partner under the name “Taiwan/Republic of China.”
Since they last met, the forum’s 18 scattered members have been buffeted by economic headwinds and escalating competition between the US and China.
Beijing has been painstakingly courting Pacific nations, using its largesse to build government offices, sporting venues, hospitals, highways and more.
Fearful that China could spin this into a permanent military presence, the US and Australia have responded by dishing out aid, inking bilateral agreements and reopening long-dormant embassies.
Climate change and security are expected to dominate discussions at this week’s meeting of the 18 Pacific island leaders. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell would also be attending.
Taiwan and Tonga had diplomatic ties from 1972 to 1998 when the country switched recognition to Beijing and broke off relations with Taipei.
Only 12 UN member countries maintain official diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Additional reporting by AFP
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
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
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
MARITIME SECURITY: Of the 52 vessels, 15 were rated a ‘threat’ for various reasons, including the amount of time they spent loitering near subsea cables, the CGA said Taiwan has identified 52 “suspicious” Chinese-owned ships flying flags of convenience that require close monitoring if detected near the nation, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday, as the nation seeks to protect its subsea telecoms cables. The stricter regime comes after a Cameroon-flagged vessel was briefly detained by the CGA earlier this month on suspicion of damaging an international cable northeast of Taiwan. The vessel is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company with a Chinese address given for its only listed director, the CGA said previously. Taiwan fears China could sever its communication links as part of an attempt
RSS