The organizers of the multinational Joint Exercise Cobra Gold on Wednesday said that Taiwan’s listing as a participant in the regional exercises being staged in Thailand was an error that has since been corrected.
The Cobra Gold Combined Joint Information Bureau (CJIB) said in an e-mail about the delisting that it “acknowledges a transcription error in a recent news post regarding the participation of Taiwan in Cobra Gold 2025.”
The “inaccurate information” about Taiwan’s participation was due to “a misinterpretation during the transcription process” and was “inadvertently published on official platforms,” the CJIB said.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Korean Marine Corps command
“Upon identifying the error, the content was promptly corrected, and Taiwan was removed from the post and story,” the CJIB said.
However, it noted that the original post had been screen-captured and used by media in reports on the annual exercises, which are cosponsored by Thailand and the US, and are usually joined by about 30 nations.
“Taiwan is not a participant in Cobra Gold 25,” the CJIB said. “At no time has the US Department of Defense officially recognized Taiwan as a participant in Cobra Gold 2025.”
The CJIB’s response followed wide reporting on Tuesday about a CJIB post on Facebook, which listed Taiwan as a participant in the annual joint exercise, but was removed a few hours later.
The original post said in the opening paragraph that “more than 200 service members from the US, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan gathered on the parade ground at Camp Suranaree, Thailand, Feb. 25, to usher in the start of Cobra Gold 2025.”
In the revised version, “Taiwan” was removed from the post.
Due its diplomatic isolation, Taiwan is usually not allowed to join international military exercises, including those organized by the US.
Asked on Tuesday about the Cobra Gold 2025 exercises, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) said his ministry could not comment on issue, given “the lack of official diplomatic ties with all the countries involved.”
“We have full respect for the organizers’ decision on whether to make public such information,” Po said in response to the question of whether the original CJIB post on Facebook had accidentally revealed Taiwan’s secret participation in the exercises.
He hoped the controversy this year would not hinder Taiwan’s possible participation in regional military exercises in the future, he said.
Since its inception in 1982, Cobra Gold has evolved from a bilateral maritime exercise between the US and Thailand into the world’s longest-running multinational military exercise, embodying decades of cooperation and partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, according to the Web site of the US Indo-Pacific Command.
The exercises are being held this year from yesterday until Friday next week in Thailand.
As well as the other countries listed in the post, China, India and Australia are “limited participating nations,” while about 20 other nations are engaged as part of the Multinational Planning Augmentation Team, or as observer nations, bringing the total number of participating countries to about 30, with more than 8,000 personnel involved, according to the CJIB.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
RSS