Day: August 21, 2019

The U.S. State Department has approved a possible $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said on Tuesday in an official notification to Congress.

The potential deal is for 66 aircraft, 75 General Electric Co engines, as well as other systems, the agency said in a statement, adding it served the interests of the United States and would help Taiwan maintain a credible defense.

China has already denounced the widely discussed sale, one of the biggest yet by the United States to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province. It has warned of unspecified “countermeasures.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, a Republican, has welcomed the proposed sale of the Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 jets.

“These fighters are critical to improving Taiwan’s ability to defend its sovereign airspace, which is under increasing pressure from the People’s Republic of China,” he said in a recent statement. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Monday that President Donald Trump notified Congress of the sale last week.

Pompeo told Fox News the sale was “consistent with past U.S. policy” and that the United States was “simply following through on the commitments we’ve made to all of the parties.”

In Tapei, President Tsai Ing-wen said the sale would help Taiwan build a new air force and boost its air defense capacity.

In a post on Facebook, Tsai said she was grateful for Washington’s “continuous support for Taiwan’s national defense.”

“With strong self-defense capacity, Taiwan will certainly be more confident to ensure the cross-strait and regional peace and stability while facing security challenges,” she said.

Taiwan unveiled its largest defense spending increase in more than a decade last week, amid rising military tensions with China.

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U.S. envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun says the Trump administration is ready to resume stalled negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear program.

Speaking Wednesday in Seoul where he was meeting with South Korean officials, Biegun said the United States is “prepared to engage as soon as we hear from our counterparts in North Korea.”

President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter earlier this month that he had received a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressing a desire “to meet and start negotiations” after the conclusion of U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises, which ended Tuesday.

North Korea considers the exercises a threat to its existence, and since late last month it carried out six short-range ballistic missile tests that Kim said were in response to the drills.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday he was concerned about the latest missile tests, disagreeing with Trump, who has shrugged off their importance.

“I wish that they would not” launch the missiles, the top U.S. diplomat told CBS News.

The two latest projectiles, fired last Friday, flew 230 kilometers into the waters off North Korea, but, aimed differently, could reach South Korea as well as American troops and civilians living there.

Trump has voiced his discontent as well, not about North Korea’s missile tests, but about the costs of the military drills with Seoul.

Asked about the missile tests, Trump told reporters, “I have no problem. These are short-range missiles.”

Trump called the missiles “smaller ones.”  He said earlier this month that Kim had sent him “a really beautiful letter” that included a “small apology” for conducting the missile tests.

The U.S. leader has held out hope that he can bring about Pyongyang’s denuclearization by the time his first term in the White House ends in January 2021.

Pompeo acknowledged in the CBS interview, however, that the United States and North Korea “haven’t gotten back to the table as quickly as we would have hoped” to continue the nuclear weapons talks.

Pompeo said the U.S. knew “there will be bumps along the way” in the negotiations.

“We hope Chairman Kim will come to the table and a get a better outcome” than by maintaining North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, he said.

“It will be better for the North Korean people,” Pompeo concluded. “It’ll be better for the world.”

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China hopes to welcome the United States “back to the negotiating table” to discuss global efforts to limit climate change at a United Nations summit to be hosted by Chile in December, its top climate change envoy said on Tuesday.

Xie Zhenhua, China’s Special Representative for Climate Change Affairs, told journalists during a visit to a solar energy plant outside the Chilean capital Santiago that China would provide “full support to the Chilean presidency of this meeting.”

The summit was “strong proof that a multilateral negotiation process is successful, that multilateralism is working,” he said.

Asked if the U.S. approach to the threat of climate change under President Donald Trump and the U.S.-China trade dispute might affect the outcome in Santiago, Xie replied: “China and the U.S. has many differences but we do have some common grounds on climate change issues as well and we welcome them back to the negotiating table on climate change, we are very open to that.”

Trump has signaled his intention to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris climate accord and been dismissive of regulations aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions. He has also expressed his preference for bilateral trade pacts over multilateral agreements.

In July, China pledged on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka to show “the highest possible ambition” in the fight against climate change. Experts and policy advisors say the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter could introduce new and more stringent carbon targets next year. 

Xie said China would back a bid by the U.N. secretary-general and climate change envoy to persuade all countries to update their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) goals to keep global warming to well below two degrees centigrade.

“The most important objective is to identify the new NDCs for the post-2020 period and link those new NDCs together with the financial support from the developed countries as promised,” Xie said. “To have that financial support in place is very important and that’s the objective we would like to achieve.”

China is a key investor in Chilean renewable energy projects and manufactured half of the solar panels at the 110MW Parque Quilapilún solar plant Xie visited with environment minister Carolina Schmidt.

Schmidt will serve as president of the COP25 U.N. climate change summit in December.

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Gen. David Berger, the new U.S. Marines commandant, acknowledged Wednesday that he is concerned about deteriorating relations between Japan and South Korea, both key regional allies, but expressed hopes politicians would work out a resolution.

Berger stressed that Japan and Korea have common interests despite their differences, such as the threat posed by China and pursuing stability in Asia.  

“I’m optimistic it will get worked out,” said Berger, during his first trip to Japan after being appointed to his post.

Besides meetings with Japanese government and military officials, his visit also includes going to the southern islands of Okinawa, where most of the U.S. forces here are based. He heads to South Korea later this week.  

Bilateral relations worsened after Tokyo removed South Korea’s preferential trade status in early July. South Korea has decided to do the same to Japan, with the new rules taking effect in September.  

Seoul sees Japan’s move as retaliation for South Korean court rulings that Japanese companies compensate South Koreans forced into labor during World War II. Japan says it is a security issue.

Berger declined to comment on what might happen if South Korea makes good on the threat to end an agreement with Japan to share military intelligence, called the General Security of Military Information Agreement, or GSOMIA, which went into effect in 2016. He said such sharing was important from a military standpoint, and discussions were ongoing outside the military.

“I never said I was not concerned. We are. What I did say is we have a common focus on an assessment of what the near and long-term threats are. But absolutely we should all be concerned when any part of any alliance has some challenges,” said Berger.

“I am confident that the right leaders are talking. I am confident that we all share a common view of the threat to stability in this region.” 

While in Okinawa, Berger will go to Henoko, where a U.S. Marine air base is being built on a coastal landfill. The Henoko base, decades in the making and backed by the Japanese government, would replace a base that’s considered noisy and dangerous and is in a crowded residential area of Okinawa.

Many residents want the base moved completely off Okinawa, and its new governor, Denny Tamaki, was elected last year while pushing that demand.

Berger played down worries about delays and said construction was going smoothly, while stopping short of giving a detailed timeline.

He said he earlier checked out the construction of a Marines facility in U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, where some of the Marines from Japan will be transferred.    

“I think the progress is solid,” he said, adding that the overall plan to begin the moves in the early 2020s is “on track.”

Japan sees the U.S. as its most important ally. Berger said the military of the two nations work closely together.
“This is the most consequential region for us. Our alliance with Japan is an essential part of that,” he said.

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Argentine presidential candidate Alberto Fernandez said on Tuesday that if he wins the October election he would join Mexico and Uruguay in promoting dialogue with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The potential foreign policy shift in Latin America’s third largest economy would end nearly four years of strident criticism of Maduro under Argentine President Mauricio Macri, who like most regional leaders have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader.

Fernandez trounced Macri in a primary vote earlier this month that serves as a preview to the October election, setting the stage for a potential political shift in South America if Argentina returns to leftist rule under Fernandez, joining Venezuela, Uruguay and Bolivia.

In an interview with local channel 13, Fernandez criticized regional demands for Maduro to step down and praised Mexico and Uruguay for promoting talks between Maduro and the opposition.

“I’d join them to try to help to find a solution for Venezuela, one that Venezuelans themselves find,” Fernandez said. “I don’t agree with all those proposals that part of Latin American rallied behind Trump on.”

Venezuela’s opposition and Washington said that Maduro is only taking part in talks to buy time and have demanded Maduro step down in order to hold elections, charging him with stealing last year’s vote.

Fernandez’ running mate, Cristina Fernandez, governed Argentina as president for eight years and was once an ideological ally of Maduro.

Fernandez distanced himself from Maduro in the interview, however, expressing concern about a recent report by U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, which found that Venezuelan security forces were sending death squads to murder opponents.

“It’s extremely serious. No one can ignore a report like that,” Fernandez said. “This is a government whose rule has become arbitrary.”

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