Japan delegation eyes security exchanges with Taiwan visit
ROC Central News Agency
07/27/2022 02:35 PM
Taipei, July 27 (CNA) Former Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is currently leading a parliamentary delegation to Taiwan, said Wednesday that the trip was aimed at fostering exchanges on Japan-Taiwan security.
Speaking to the awaiting press corps upon arrival at Songshan Airport in Taipei at 11:15 a.m., Ishiba said that the visit, which is due to last until Saturday, would see the delegation hold talks with Taiwanese officials on regional security issues.
He added that more Japanese lawmakers had originally planned to join the trip, however, three of them tested positive for COVID-19 and were therefore unable to do so.
The 65-year-old Ishiba of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost a run for the ruling party's presidency in 2012 to former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
According to Taiwan's foreign ministry, during their four-day visit, the four-person delegation will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), and other senior government officials.
They will also pay visits to the Executive Yuan, Legislative Yuan, the Ministry of National Defense, and local think tanks to exchange views with officials and scholars on Taiwan-Japan security issues, it added.
The delegation is also scheduled to pay their respects at late President Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) grave at a New Taipei military cemetery.
Lee, Taiwan's first popularly elected president who passed away at the age of 97 in July 2020, spoke fluent Japanese and gained a reputation later in life for holding pro-Japan views.
The delegation also includes another former Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, as well as Akihisa Nakashima, a former deputy defense chief, and Takayuki Shimizu.
Ishiba, Hamada, and Nakashima are members of the House of Representatives, Japan's lower house, while Shimizu is a member of the House of Councilors, the country's upper house.
According to MOFA, all the visiting Japanese congressmen are members of a Japanese parliamentarian association on security issues jointly founded by Ishiba and Hamada in November 2019.
Asked to comment on the visit, Kuo Yu-jen (郭育仁) executive director of the Institute for National Policy Research and an expert in Japanese affairs, told CNA that this was the highest-level delegation from Japan to visit Taiwan since the severing of diplomatic relations.
The visit comes ahead of the publication of three more defense-related papers by the Japanese government before the end of this year, Kuo said, adding that the trip is likely meant for these congressmen to gain a first-hand evaluation of Taiwan for use in drafting these papers.
Another Japanese expert, Wang Tsun-yen (王尊彥) of the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, meanwhile, told CNA that Japan has referred to Taiwan as an "extremely important partner" in its annual defense white paper published last week, which showed a significantly wider coverage of the Taiwan issue from the previous year.
This showed that Japan had recognized Taiwan's strategic position in relation to Japan and was subsequently putting more emphasis on Taipei's security.
(By Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh)
Enditem/ASG
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