President Tsai Ing-wen is highlighting the importance of strengthening Taiwan, US and Japan relations.  Tsai was speaking on Tuesday at a video forum on security issues in the Indo-Pacific region. The former US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell was also a speaker at the forum.

Tsai said one of the challenges she faces is dealing with China’s military incursions that threaten Taiwan every day. President Tsai said Taiwan, the US and Japan should work together on a Global Cooperation and Training Framework to deal with regional and global challenges.

President Tsai also said the world has been affected in unprecedented ways by the COVID-19 pandemic. The global economy continues to deteriorate and people’s lifestyles have been forced to change. At the same time, she said the democracy movement in Hong Kong and the US presidential election have impacted regional politics. Tsai said the world is forced to make the key decision of whether to protect democracy or succumb to authoritarianism. 

The president said that Taiwan wants to show itself as a reliable partner as the world faces the challenges such as the pandemic.