PLA drills not close to Taiwan: Defense Minister Koo

Taipei, Oct. 12 (CNA) Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said Monday that Taiwan is closely monitoring China's military exercises in the region and has assessed that the latest round will be held off the coast of China rather than near Taiwan.

Nonetheless, the Ministry of National Defense is preparing for various scenarios, Koo told reporters in Taipei, after China's Maritime Safety Administration issued no-sail notices late last week for five marine areas ahead of military exercises scheduled for Oct. 12-17.

The five no-sail areas listed are in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, South China Sea and Bohai Sea, where the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is expected to carry out live-fire drills, according to Chinese authorities.

On Monday, Koo said the Taiwan military has assessed that the exercises will be held near China's coastline and will involve only PLA artillery units, but Taiwan continues to closely monitor the situation.

The Chinese government has not explicitly said whether the exercises were a response to President Lai Ching-te's (賴清德) National Day address on Saturday, but it claimed that they were a deterrent to any move by Taiwan towards "independence."

In a social media post on Sunday, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Chen Xi (陳曦) said Lai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was "aggressively pursuing a 'Taiwan independence' agenda."

"The routine military exercises conducted by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) around the island [Taiwan] serve to deter reckless 'Taiwan independence' moves and plots involving foreign interference, as well as to safeguard the safety and well-being of the Taiwanese public," Chen wrote.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Maritime and Port Bureau told reporters in Taipei on Monday that three of the designated PLA exercise areas in the Bohai and Yellow seas were outside Taiwan's waters.

The other two designated exercise areas in the East and South China seas are within China's coastal waters, 159 nautical miles and 588 nautical miles from Taiwan, respectively, the bureau said.

Therefore, the PLA's six-day exercises are unlikely to have any impact on vessels operating near Taiwan, the bureau added.