Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs today saw think tanks from Taiwan, the U.S. and Japan – “Vision Foundation”, “Project 2049 Institute” and the “Japan Institute of International Studies” come together in person and across the web as part of an event hosted at The Sheraton Hotel in Taipei, under the theme of “Challenges and Opportunities for (the) Indo-Pacific and Taiwan Strait Situation as part of a trilateral Indo-Pacific security dialogue.
President Tsai of Taiwan, speaking at the opening ceremony pointed out that major events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hong Kong democracy movement, in addition to the US Presidential Election in November will all have a significant impact on how Taiwan responds to future regional geopolitics.
Tsai emphasized that the region is either in a stage of defending democracy or succumbing to the threat of authoritarianism, adding, as she often has, that Taiwan is ready to help.
The issue of the “Global Cooperation and Training Framework” (GCTF) was also raised with participating member Japan becoming an official partner of the GCTF last year.
Sweden , Australia and the Netherlands have also recently joined as GCTF partners on specific issues.
Also speaking, via video link, Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State Department for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under former U.S. President Obama and current Chairman of the “Asia Group”, said that the continuity of the US Asia-Pacific policy is very important, adding that the incoming Biden administration must ensure that the “Quadruple Dialogue Mechanism” (QUAD) becomes more robust and vigorous, and that the United States must rejoin international organizations and exert leadership.
Campbell also aired his wishes for cross-strait Taiwan-China tensions to ease.
Robert Menendez (D-NJ), the the ranking member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also delivered a special pre-recorded speech.
Senator Mennández stated that the establishment of a free and open Indo-Pacific region is of the utmost importance and that the US Indo-Pacific strategy must be based on cooperation with countries with similar ideas, including Taiwan and Japan.
His speech also, crucially for Taipei, went on to emphasize the deep and cross-party commitment of the United States to Taiwan, including security commitments, assisting Taiwan in expanding international space and maintaining diplomatic relations.
