Taiwan's military quiet on U.S. participation in Han Kuang wargames

Taipei, April 15 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) would not comment Monday on reports that a retired United States army general is serving as an advisor to Taiwan's chief of the general staff during the computer-aided part of the ongoing Han Kuang wargames.

Citing unnamed military sources, local media reported Monday that Robert B. Abrams, a retired four-star general in the U.S. Army, is observing the computer-aided war games and serving as an advisor to Chief of the General Staff Mei Chia-shu (梅家樹).

The computer-aided war games began on April 5 and will end on Friday.

Chieh Chung (揭仲), a researcher at the Association of Strategic Foresight, said this indicated that military exchanges between Taiwan and the U.S. have deepened to the point where the two sides now coordinate their plans, but that it remained far from engaging in a joint combat.

The two militaries have not engaged in a joint combat exercise in nearly 50 years, Chieh said.

The MND declined to comment on the matter when asked by CNA for a response, saying only that military exchanges between Taiwan and the U.S. are proceeding as planned.

Similar reports were published in February after the MND's Military News Agency released a photo of a tabletop exercise attended by high-ranking military officers.

In the photo, a name tag with the words "J5 Maj. General" could be seen, "J5" being a military term referring to Joint Staff J5 in charge of making strategic, plans and policy recommendations to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, then led by Major General Jay M. Bargeron.

The MND also declined to comment on the issue at the time, and the agency later replaced the photo with one that did not include the name tag.

The annual Han Kuang exercises are Taiwan's largest-scale military drills and comprise a computer-aided section and combat-related drills.