President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presented former Japanese National Security Secretariat director-general Shigeru Kitamura with the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon in recognition of his contributions to deepening ties between Taiwan and Japan.
Tsai welcomed Kitamura and his family to Taiwan for the ceremony and expressed deep gratitude to him for his profound friendship with the country and long-term dedication to deepening Taiwan-Japan relations.
Kitamura, who was in 2019 appointed head of the National Security Secretariat by then-Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, was a key driver for the country’s new national security strategy published at the end of last year, she said.
Photo: screen grab from the Presidential Office Web site
The revised strategy states that “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait are crucial to the peace, stability and prosperity of international society.”
Taiwan and Japan are important partners that support each other, Tsai said.
In the past few years, the two sides overcame the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, continued to deepen economic and trade relationships and bolstered industrial cooperation, she said.
Total bilateral trade between Taiwan and Japan and Japanese investment in Taiwan hit record highs last year, she added.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at an APEC summit last month, agreeing to foster a closer semiconductor partnership, she said.
Tsai thanked Japan for reiterating the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, adding that Taipei would continue to work with Tokyo to safeguard regional peace and Abe’s vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
Kitamura thanked Tsai for conferring the decoration and Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) for helping facilitate the ceremony.
Thanks to the trust of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan, Kitamura established communication channels with Taiwan while serving in Japan’s National Police Agency and in intelligence and national security positions in the 1990s, he said.
Joining negotiations on a fisheries agreement between Taiwan and Japan, which was signed in 2013, made him realize the close connection between domestic affairs and foreign relations, he said.
Kitamura also expressed gratitude to the government and Taiwanese for their special feelings toward Abe and for offering condolences after he was assassinated last year.
The world is paying close attention to the presidential elections in Taiwan and the US next year and their effects on the international situation, he said.
As the security environment surrounding Japan and Taiwan is increasingly severe, the two should join hands to enhance deterrence over external threats by sharing diplomatic and defense intelligence and pooling together economic and technological forces, he said.
He vowed to continue pursuing the values of open and free democracy.
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
RSS