The world, and especially WESTPAC is not taking an operational pause as everyone else focuses on the unfolding humiliation of the West in Afghanistan.
American’s friends there are facing China in a way they never have before in their history as democratic nations.
Even with their troubled history in the 20th Century, the 21st Century leaders of Taiwan and Japan are making substantial efforts to further tie the future of their two nations together.
As reported at Bloomberg;
The ruling parties of Japan and Taiwan will hold their first security talks this week, with bilateral concerns about increasing Chinese military strength likely to be top of the agenda.
Members of the Liberal Democratic Party and Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party will hold their first bilateral security talks on Friday, the Taiwan party’s lawmaker Lo Chih-cheng said Wednesday. A secretary for the head of the LDP’s foreign affairs committee confirmed the schedule.
The talks are the latest sign of a more coordinated response among democratic governments concerned about China’s increasingly assertive actions in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.
Lawmakers from the United States, Taiwan and Japan, including former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, met online in July to discuss greater support for the democratically ruled island.
With or without the United States, this growing cooperation between these front-line states can only benefit the United States and her other friends in the area.
As outlined by Adam P. Liff at Brookings this week;
Recent remarks from Japanese leaders do not mean Tokyo has pledged to defend Taiwan if China attacks, or that it necessarily commits to supporting the United States militarily if Washington chooses to get involved. Nor is Japan on the verge of passing a “Japanese Taiwan Relations Act.”
Yet this shifting rhetoric also is not occurring in a strategic, diplomatic, or political vacuum. We’ve seen sharply heightened concerns in Tokyo about China’s growing power and coercive policies, including toward democratic Taiwan, along with significant efforts to bolster security ties with Washington and other U.S. allies. Furthermore, U.S. and Japanese practical cooperation with Taipei is deepening. Closely coordinated shipments of coronavirus vaccines to Taiwan — Japan’s third shipment arrived last month — are one example.
The recent statements, coupled with Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi’s June statement that “the peace and stability of Taiwan are directly connected to Japan” and the unprecedently detailed coverage of Taiwan and cross-Strait dynamics in Japan’s newly released defense white paper, make clear this will be an important space to watch.
History does not pause so you can laser focus on the crisis of the moment.
