Kuala Lumpur, [Malaysia], July 13 : Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Takeshi Iwaya, has sharply criticised China's provocative military drills around Taiwan, calling them "incompatible" with peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Taipei Times reported. His remarks, delivered during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers' Meetings, signal rising regional resistance to Beijing's escalating military aggression.
According to Taipei Times, Iwaya told Wang that "peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is important for the international community, including Japan," and that China's large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan contradict the very notion of regional stability.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry's official statement, cited by Taipei Times, reiterated Tokyo's opposition to any unilateral attempts to alter the status quo by force or coercion, an unmistakable rebuke of Beijing's military pressure campaign against Taiwan.
During the meeting, Iwaya also expressed grave concerns about China's aggressive posture in the South China Sea, reinforcing Japan's growing frustration with what many in the region see as Beijing's destabilising expansionism and disregard for international norms.
In Taipei, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Hsiao Kuang-wei echoed Japan's concerns, stating that China's repeated use of fabricated pretexts to escalate military intimidation poses a serious and ongoing threat to peace across the Taiwan Strait and beyond, Taipei Times reported.
Hsiao noted that Japan's consistent warnings to China, most recently during high-level meetings including a November APEC summit and a bilateral foreign ministers' meeting in Tokyo this March, underscore the growing international alarm over Beijing's coercive tactics. He cited as an example the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during the APEC summit in Lima in November last year, as well as the Japan-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Tokyo in March, Taipei Times reported.
As China ramps up its sabre-rattling, regional powers like Japan are increasingly stepping forward to challenge Beijing's militarism and support Taiwan's democratic resilience.
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