U.S., Japan, South Korea reaffirm commitment to Taiwan Strait peace

Washington, July 8 (CNA) The United States, Japan, and South Korea reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, during a meeting of their top diplomats on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey on Tuesday, according to the U.S. State Department.

According to a State Department news release on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Tuesday with Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun in Ankara to discuss how deeper trilateral cooperation could benefit their shared economic interests and promote security and prosperity in a free and open Indo-Pacific.

The State Department said the three officials discussed the importance of NATO cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners on issues of mutual interest, including accelerating defense spending and production, combating cyber and hybrid attacks, and sharing information on security developments and challenges in the broader Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions.

Regarding Taiwan, the State Department said, Rubio and his Japanese and South Korean counterparts underscored the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and expressed concern over the "increasingly frequent destabilizing actions around Taiwan."

They also encouraged the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues and expressed opposition to any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo, particularly by force or coercion, according to the press release.

Their statements were made amid growing concerns over China's increasing military and other activities around Taiwan in recent years.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has accused China of conducting "gray-zone" harassment and maritime coercion against neighboring countries in recent years, saying China's maritime activities in the East China Sea, South China Sea, and Taiwan Strait were aimed at pursuing expansion under the guise of law enforcement, patrols, and surveys.