Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday thanked Japan for its firm support for maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and stressed that Taiwan has always welcomed international society’s efforts to help maintain regional peace.
Lin made the remarks in response to Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya reiterating the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) in Tokyo on Saturday.
During the meeting, Iwaya also said that Japan is closely monitoring Chinese military activities toward Taiwan and encouraged the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said.
Photo: Eugene Hoshiko, Reuters
Iwaya said Japan opposes any attempts to unilaterally change the “status quo” by force or coercion, the ministry added.
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Iwaya expressed Japan’s serious concerns about the situation in the East China Sea and near the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyutais, 釣魚台列嶼), and the intensification of Chinese military activities, adding that due to Japanese nationals being detained and the lack of transparency in China’s “anti-espionage law,” Japanese are hesitant about traveling to China
Taiwan’s foreign affairs ministry yesterday said that in recent years, the Japanese government has in several international meetings stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and urged the international society to closely monitor the situation in the Strait.
The topic was also brought up during the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru in Washington last month, the US-Japan-South Korea Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Munich, Germany, last month, and the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Canada this month, the ministry said.
Lin thanked Japan for its continued attention to the security of the Taiwan Strait, and for firmly supporting peace and stability in the Strait, it said.
Lin also pledged that Taiwan would continue to bolster its self-defense capabilities and enhance cooperation with like-minded countries to ensure peace, stability and prosperity in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region, it said.
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
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A court has approved Kaohsiung prosecutors’ request that two people working for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Dai-hua (林岱樺) be detained, as a probe into two cases allegedly involving her continues. The request was made on Friday, after prosecutors raided Lin’s two offices and the staffers’ residences, and questioned five on suspicion of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪汙治罪條例). The people included the directors of Lin’s Daliao (大寮) and Linyuan (林園) district offices in Kaohsiung, surnamed Chou (周) and Lin (林) respectively, as well as three other staffers. The prosecutors’ move came after they interrogated Lin Dai-hua on Wednesday. She appeared solemn following
RSS