President William Lai’s (賴清德) visit last week to Taiwan’s three Pacific allies, accompanied by stopovers in the US, focused on strengthening democratic alliances in the region, the Presidential Office said yesterday.
The week-long tour from Nov. 30 to Friday last week, organized under the theme “Prosperous Austronesia, Smart Sustainability,” included visits to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau, as well as stopovers in Guam and Hawaii.
Lai’s trip was an example of Taiwan “using democratic alliances to engage with the world,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement yesterday.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Presidential Office via AFP
The trip’s itinerary linked Taiwan, in the first island chain, to its three diplomatic allies and Guam in the second island chain, and Hawaii in the third island chain, she said.
Kuo was referring to terms used to describe the “island chain strategy,” a marine containment strategy developed by the US during the Cold War that has more recently been applied to containing China.
Lai’s itinerary and his remarks during the trip focused on three main elements, the first being Taiwan’s “international visibility and importance as a country in the first island chain,” the spokeswoman said.
In a telephone call during Lai’s stopover in Guam, US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said Taiwan is at the core of the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy, Kuo said.
Lai pledged throughout the trip that Taiwan would put its full efforts into strengthening its defensive capabilities, she said.
Second, the trip showed how Taiwan is seeking to build democratic alliances, including with its South Pacific allies, the US, Japan and Australia, to jointly maintain regional peace, stability and prosperity, Kuo said.
Third, amid efforts by China and Russia to break through these “democratic island chains,” Lai’s trip also showed that the Indo-Pacific has become a “global security community,” and that “the Taiwan Strait issue is a joint challenge for global democracies,” Kuo said.
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