Taiwan's listing as participant in Exercise Cobra Gold an error: Organizers

Bangkok, Feb. 26 (CNA)The organizers of the multi-national Joint Exercise Cobra Gold said Wednesday that Taiwan's recent listing as a participant in the regional exercises being staged in Thailand was an error that has since been corrected.

The Cobra Gold Combined Joint Information Bureau (CJIB) "acknowledges a transcription error in a recent news post regarding the participation of Taiwan in Cobra Gold 2025,” the bureau said in an email response to CNA about the delisting.

The “inaccurate information” about Taiwan’s participation was due to “a misinterpretation during the transcription process” and was “inadvertently published on official platforms,” the CJIB said.

“Upon identifying the error, the content was promptly corrected, and Taiwan was removed from the post and story," the CJIB said.

It noted, however, that the original post had been screen-captured and used by the Taiwan media in reports on the annual exercises, which are co-sponsored by Thailand and the United States and are usually joined by about 30 nations.

“Taiwan is not a participant in Cobra Gold 25," the CJIB said. "At no time has the U.S. Department of Defense officially recognized Taiwan as a participant in Cobra Gold 2025.”

The CJIB’s response followed wide reporting Tuesday in the Taiwanese media about a CJIB post on Facebook, which listed Taiwan as participant in the annual joint exercise but removed the listing a few hours later.

The original post said in the opening paragraph that "more than 200 service members from the U.S., Thailand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan gathered on the parade ground at Camp Suranaree, Thailand, Feb. 25, to usher in the start of Cobra Gold 2025.”

In the revised version, the word “Taiwan” was removed from the post.

Due its diplomatic isolation, Taiwan is usually not allowed to join international military exercises, including those organized by the U.S, Taiwan’s top security guarantor.

When asked Tuesday about the Cobra Gold 2025 exercises, Taiwan's Deputy Defense Minister Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) said his ministry could not comment on issue, given "the lack of official diplomatic ties with all the countries involved.”

On the question of whether the original CJIB post on Facebook had accidentally revealed Taiwan's secret participation in the exercises, Po did not give a definitive answer, saying only, “We have full respect for the organizers' decision on whether to make public such information.”

He further said that he hoped the controversy this year would not hinder Taiwan’s possible participation in regional military exercises in the future.

Since its inception in 1982, Cobra Gold has evolved from a bilateral maritime exercise between the U.S. and Thailand into the world’s longest-running multinational military exercise, embodying decades of cooperation and partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, according to the website of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

The exercises are being held this year from February 25 through March 7 in Thailand.

According to the CJIB, the participating nations this year include Thailand, U.S., Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia.

China, India and Australia are listed as “limited participating nations,” while approximately 20 other nations are engaged in Cobra Gold 2025 as part of the Multinational Planning Augmentation Team (MPAT), or as observer nations, bringing the total number of participating countries to around 30, with more than 8,000 personnel involved, according to the CJIB.