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Time not right for military discussions with China: ministry

ROC Central News Agency

2013/03/13 21:07:40

Taipei, March 13 (CNA) The time is not right for Taiwan to discuss military confidence-building measures with China, Taiwan's Deputy Defense Minister Andrew Yang said Wednesday.

He said that while the two sides have been fostering trust over the past four-plus years, the environment and conditions are not right to proceed to military or political matters.

Taiwan and China have signed 18 agreements over the past four-plus years amid improving relations but must continue their efforts to build mutual trust, Yang said at a news conference to publicize the second edition of Taiwan's Quadrennial Defense Review.

Publication of the review is required within 10 months of each presidential inauguration to outline the country's defense and military strategies for the president's four-year term.

On the issue of cross-Taiwan Strait confidence, the report says Taiwan's current policy toward China is focused on economic and cultural exchanges. This is based on an approach of putting pressing issues before less urgent ones, easier issues before more difficult ones, and economic issues before political ones, it says.

Yang said military confidence-building measures will require Taiwan and China to give an assurance of respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty and renounce military invasion of the other side.

Both sides must also put measures in place to reduce tensions, given the risk of military conflict, Yang added.

Meanwhile, Cheang Yun-pung, director-general of the Department of Strategic Planning under the Ministry of National Defense, said at the news conference that "military confidence-building measures must be based on mutual political trust."

But political trust between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is not yet at a level where military confidence-building measures can be pursued, he added.

"We should remain cautious about military confidence-building measures in the absence of sufficient mutual political trust," Cheang said, citing the example of North Korea's unilateral decision last week to nullify the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953.

(By Elaine Hou)