《TAIPEI TIMES》 Strait ‘indispensable’: US, Japan, S Korea

COOPERATION: Washington, Tokyo and Seoul called for Beijing to follow international law, following the three governments’ trilateral meeting on Friday

By Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter

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The US, Japan and South Korea underlined the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait in a joint statement issued a day after the three governments held the first trilateral Indo-Pacific Dialogue in Washington on Friday.

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink, Japanese Foreign Policy Bureau Deputy Minister and Director-General Yasuhiro Kobe and South Korean Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Chung Byung-won met to discuss each country’s Indo-Pacific approach and opportunities for cooperation, the US Department of State said in a news release on Saturday.

The three representatives “reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as indispensable to security and prosperity in the international community,” it said.

Regarding China’s “dangerous and escalatory behavior supporting unlawful maritime claims” in the South China Sea, the three urged countries to follow international law, the statement said.

They “opposed any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion anywhere in the waters of the Indo-Pacific,” it said.

In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the statement and thanked the three countries for reiterating their stance on the Taiwan Strait issue.

The statement followed the concern voiced by US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol during their summit in August last year, the ministry said in a news release yesterday.

Beijing’s recent deployment of balloons across the Taiwan Strait’s median line, suspension of tariff cuts on imports of certain Taiwanese products and cognitive warfare campaign were clear attempts to influence Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections on Saturday, the ministry said.

The importance of cross-strait peace and stability is a global consensus, it said, adding that Taiwan would continue working with like-minded partners to promote peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.

Separately, Japan and South Korea could consider Taiwan a common strategic issue, which would improve security in the Indo-Pacific region, a Taiwanese researcher said in the Annual Assessment of the Security Environment in the Indo-Pacific Region report.

The report was published on Wednesday last week by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

If Japan and South Korea are willing to cooperate with each other and even with Taipei to deter China from invading Taiwan, a “Taiwan contingency” could be prevented, institute associate research fellow Wang Tsun-yen （王尊彥） said.

Japan’s stance regarding the issue — “a Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency” — is known, while South Korea has begun voicing concerns about the cross-strait situation in the second half of the administration of former South Korean president Moon Jae-in, he said.

Ensuring peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in the two countries’ interests, as a cross-strait conflict would inevitably affect Japan and the Strait is a crucial gateway to Southeast Asia and South Asia, according to South Korea’s New Southern Policy, he said.

Growing ties between Japan and South Korea in the past year have “great strategic significance in terms of the Indo-Pacific region’s security,” he added.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES