US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Cameron on Thursday reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
The US and the UK are aligned on key challenges they face in the Indo-Pacific region, including “ensuring peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Blinken told a news conference after he met with Cameron in Washington.
Blinken said that there is a joint US-UK military facility that “plays a vital role in the Indo-Pacific region” and beyond, enabling the two sides to help safeguard regional stability, respond rapidly to crises and “counter some of the most challenging threats that we face.”
Photo: AFP
The two countries are “engaging China where we can” to address global challenges such as safety issues related to artificial intelligence while “standing up to the PRC [People’s Republic of China] for its nonmarket practices,” he said.
Countering “Chinese cyberattacks and other hostile acts” are crucial for the UK and the US, Cameron said, while calling for closer cooperation between allies to deal with Beijing.
In related news, Cameron told the Aspen Security Forum in Washington that China must not pursue unification with Taiwan by force, violence or coercion.
Asked whether “China’s real goal is to take Taiwan without firing a shot” as it sought to do in Hong Kong, Cameron said that was “the China goal that has always been there.”
While China believes in unification with Taiwan, the “one China” policy shared by the UK and the US insists that “this cannot happen in a way that involves force or violence or coercion,” he said.
Since he left office as British prime minister in 2016, China has changed and become “so much more hostile,” Cameron said, citing examples such as its treatment of Uighurs, its tightened grip over Hong Kong and “wolf warrior” diplomacy.
“We need to harden our systems and be very clear-eyed” to deal with this “different China,” he said.
The UK not only has to protect itself and its systems against cybercrime and other threats posed by China, but also “align better with our allies,” he said.
“It’s much easier to stand up to this sort of things if we stick together,” he added.
Separately, European Council officials at the EU-China summit in Beijing on Thursday voiced concern over heightened tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, and expressed opposition to any unilateral attempt to change the “status quo.”
European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first face-to-face meeting between the two sides in more than four years, followed by an exchange with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強).
“The EU reaffirmed its consistent one China policy and expressed concerns about increased tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” the European Council said in a press release after the meetings.
Regional and global prosperity and security are threatened by increased instability in the East and South China seas, the press release said.
The EU opposes any unilateral attempts to change the “status quo” by force or coercion, calling for disputes to be resolved “through peaceful means in accordance with international law,” in particular the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, it said.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS