By Chen Chih-cheng and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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The donation of offshore patrol vessel Kinmen to the Philippines includes provisions that protect Taiwanese fishers and facilitate security cooperation across the First Island Chain, officials said yesterday. The comment was made during the Cabinet’s comprehensive administrative report at the legislature after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) expressed concerns about the decision to give a ship to a country whose coast guard had in 2013 fired on a Taiwanese trawler and killed its captain without provocation. The Cabinet should lay out the safeguards that have been established to prevent the Philippine government from using the Kinmen to harass, expel or attack Taiwanese fishers, Hsu said.
Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling, right, speaks as Premier Cho Jung-tai looks on during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: CNA
Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said Taipei and Manila signed an agreement that the Philippines would not mount weapons on the vessel and that it would be used for civilian purposes. The Philippine government also agreed to never use the vessel for maritime law enforcement missions targeting Taiwanese fishers, or the ship would have to be returned to Taiwan, she said.
The council will strictly enforce the terms of its agreement with the Philippines, Kuan said. Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said facilitating security cooperation among First Island Chain countries — to maintain peace in the Indo-Pacific region — is one of the government’s key national security goals. Taipei and Manila signed comprehensive agreements to regulate the vessel’s use in Filipino hands and address other concerns regarding the rights and safety of Taiwanese fishers, he said. The Cabinet is continuing to hammer out specific guidelines for the ship’s service with the Philippine government, and plans for converting decommissioned government ships for other tasks in Taiwanese waters, he added.