Improved defense, US ties needed: TsaiJUGGLING GLOBAL GIANTS: At a National Security Council meeting, the president pushed the idea of a trade agreement with the US and stabilizing cross-strait relationsBy Lee Hsin-fang / Staff reporterPresident Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday instructed the government to bolster self-defense capabilities, improve relations with the US across party lines, and stabilize economic and social order. The directives were issued at a National Security Council meeting, which was held earlier yesterday amid an increasing number of incursions by Chinese military planes and ahead of Tuesday’s US presidential election. Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang at a news briefing in Taipei yesterday comments on a National Security Council meeting hosted by President Tsai Ing-wen. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei TimesDuring the meeting, Tsai said the nation should further modernize its defense capabilities, upgrade its asymmetric combat capabilities, promote indigenous arms development and reform its reserve forces to brace for Beijing’s military expansion and aggression, Chang quoted Tsai as saying. Tsai said that stabilizing cross-strait relations is a shared interest of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Source: Taipei Times October 31, 2020 15:56 UTC