Taiwan’s military made public on Wednesday its participation in an exchange project with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by having a pilot who took part talk about it during a military media tour before the Lunar New Year break.
Lieutenant Colonel Wu Pang-yen (吳邦彥), deputy commander of the Air Force’s 42nd Combat Squadron of the 499th Wing, who was sent to the NATO Defense College (NDC) for a six-month advanced level training course in 2022, told reporters he was honored to represent Taiwan’s military in the annual exchange program.
Wu said the half-year course was joined by representatives from NATO countries and partner states to discuss the international and regional security situation, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Indo-Pacific issues.
Many of his classmates, mostly diplomats and military personnel from those countries, were extremely interested in the Taiwan issue during the training period, Wu said.
He said their awareness of Taiwan had grown because of the boost it has received to its international visibility from its strong semiconductor sector and the importance of maintaining cross-Taiwan Strait peace to global economic development.
The event at which Wu appeared at Hsinchu Air Base on Wednesday was part of an annual media tour arranged by the Ministry of National Defense (MND) to reassure the public that the military would remain on alert during the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts Jan. 20.
According to the MND, it has been sending one military service person to the NATO Defense College for the six-month project each year “for years,” though it refused to disclose exactly when Taiwan joined the program.
Taiwan’s military has regular exchanges and joint training programs with the United States, its main ally militarily, but it has rarely made public similar exchanges with NATO.
The NDC is the international military college for NATO countries located in Rome, Italy.
Established in 1951, the college’s goal is to provide “military and civilian officials with senior-leader education on NATO issues… and providing networking opportunities in a multi-cultural setting,” according to its website.
Wednesday’s media session was held just days after former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen suggested in Taiwan on Jan. 5 that NATO and European countries should hold joint exercises with Taiwan’s military on “European soil” to prevent a Chinese invasion.
Rasmussen, who served as the 12th secretary-general of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014, made the appeal when asked by local media how NATO could play a more active role in the cross-Taiwan Strait situation, as suggested by foreign scholars.
He believed that NATO should react “determinately if China were to attack Taiwan” by helping Taiwan militarily and warn Beijing of “profound and comprehensive economic sanctions” should it invade Taipei.
He acknowledged that NATO and some European countries were not like the United States, which is the main supplier of weapons to Taipei, but said they could still play a more active role to prevent a Chinese invasion.
He said European countries and NATO could conduct “joint training and exercises on European soil for instance” with Taiwanese military personnel just as they have done training Ukrainian troops to fight invading Russian forces.
Source : Focus Taiwan
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