Lai launches global disaster alliance

President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday announced the establishment of the World Alliance for Disaster Management (WADM), calling it a major breakthrough in Taiwan’s participation in international organizations over the past half-century. Lai made the announcement at the opening of the Resilient Taiwan for Sustainable Democracy International Forum, hosted by the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday. It also marked the second anniversary of the establishment of the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee. The WADM, an international organization spearheaded by Taiwan, is set to link governments, and disaster prevention agencies and organizations around the world to advance joint training and exercises, as well as mutual assistance and information sharing, with the aim of making Taiwan a cross-border hub for disaster prevention and response coordination, Lai said. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times The organization’s founding members consist of 11 of Taiwan’s official diplomatic allies with UN seats and the Republic of Somaliland, he said. The WADM is made up of central and local governments, disaster prevention agencies and organizations from 21 countries, including the US, Japan, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and the Philippines, he said. “Together they form a cooperation network that spans the globe,” Lai said. “The establishment of the WADM is a major breakthrough for Taiwan in over half a century of efforts to take part in international organizations.” The committee was established two years ago with the goal of boosting Taiwanese society’s resilience through public-private cooperation, and to help the government continue to operate effectively, and society and essential services to function as normal should the nation face any type of disaster, Lai said. Taiwan is confident that it has something to offer the international community, he said, citing as an example last month’s Han Kuang military exercises and the Urban Resilience Exercises, which enabled non-military government agencies at the central and local levels to conduct simultaneous drills under the same conditions. As president, his role is to “ensure Taiwan is better prepared and has greater strength to maintain the status quo, and to prevent peace from being undermined by unilateral provocations,” in the face of dramatically changing international landscape and intensifying threats from China, Lai said. Taiwan’s defense budget has doubled over the past decade, Lai said, adding that his administration has for the first time proposed a defense budget that exceeded NT$1 trillion (US$31.44 billion) for next year. The NT$1.1225 trillion budget would put defense spending above 3 percent of GDP, and it is expected to reach 5 percent by 2030, he said. “We are determined to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities and to safeguard peace through strength,” Lai said. “Taiwan will continue to expand its participation by contributing to the world, to build trust through professionalism and to connect to the world through cooperation,” he said. He also urged democratic societies to cooperate with each other and spread confidence through resilience when authoritarian forces seek to spread fear and create discord and strife. “Peace through strength, strength through resilience and resilience through unity,” Lai said, adding that all the preparation aims to protect the welfare of Taiwanese, preserve Taiwan’s free and democratic way of life, and defend peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region and across the world. With an increasingly extreme and unpredictable climate, resilience preparedness also enables society to absorb shocks, recover quickly and ultimately achieve sustainability, he added. The forum brought more than 500 local and international defense experts, officials and business representatives to Taipei yesterday. They exchanged views on climate change, “gray zone” aggression and geopolitical risks, and discussed comprehensive resilience models around the world, military-civilian cooperation, psychological defense and resilience partnerships. GEOPOLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The CGA’s nonmilitary role makes it a tool to avert diplomatic issues, an official said, while confirming the donation of a ship to Manila Coast Guard Administration (CGA) ships are scheduled to sail to the Philippines bearing the words “Taiwan Coast Guard” in a high-profile visit in October next year, the first such visit by a Taiwanese maritime law enforcement vessel to the Southeast Asian nation, the agency said yesterday. The CGA also confirmed that it had donated one of its decommissioned patrol vessels to the Philippines in a rare transfer of a retired ship to a nondiplomatic ally. The Republic of China (ROC) Navy last made such a visit in 1974, shortly before the Philippines switched diplomatic recognition to the People’s Republic of China in ‘GLOBAL WARNING’: The infiltration is not just a local problem, as Beijing has been deploying the same tactics worldwide against Western democracies, a report said Between 50,000 and 100,000 Chinese spies are operating in Taiwan, far more than the National Security Bureau’s previous estimate of 5,000, German journalist and author Jurgen Kremb said on Monday. Kremb presented his research, titled “The War of Spies: How China’s Intelligence Services Are Infiltrating Taiwan — and What Europe Must Learn from It,” at a joint event held by the Taiwan offices of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the European Values Center for Security Policy. The report was published in June in the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau’s Prospect & Exploration Monthly (展望與探索月刊). By spies, he said he was referring to informants, PRICE STABILIZATION: The Ministry of Economic Affairs has urged the legislature to support the Cabinet’s supplementary budget for state-owned energy companies State-owned oil supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) on Saturday announced that it would raise domestic gasoline prices by NT$0.7 (US$0.02) per liter and diesel prices by NT$0.6 per liter this week after international crude oil prices rose above US$100 per barrel last week. Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) yesterday said that it matched CPC’s price adjustments for this week. The decisions end a six-week period during which CPC and Formosa kept fuel prices in Taiwan unchanged. Retail gasoline prices this week would rise to NT$31.2, NT$32.7 and NT$34.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively at CPC WASHINGTON MEETING: Japan’s Hirofumi Takinami said participants rejected the idea that the US should limit its defensive perimeter to the Second Island Chain US and Japanese lawmakers agree that the US must defend the First Island Chain, including Taiwan, and should not fall back to the Second Island Chain, while “a Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency and therefore a US-Japan alliance contingency,” media reported after a meeting between officials of the two nations in Washington on Tuesday. A delegation of Japanese lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party met with US Senator Thom Tillis, co-chair of the Senate Taiwan Caucus, and US Representative Ami Bera, co-chair of the US Congressional Taiwan caucus, to discuss issues concerning East Asia and the Taiwan Strait. The Japanese and