TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan will strengthen the scale of cooperation with the U.S. and Japan, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in a pre-recorded video for the international seminar "50 Years Without Diplomatic Relations – Future Prospects for Taiwan-Japan-U.S. Relations" on Saturday (Oct. 29).

In the past few years, Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S. have worked together to fight the pandemic but now have shifted focus on realizing a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” Tsai said, according to the Presidential Office.

The president said that one way to bolster closer ties is through the Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF), which is a cooperation platform co-founded by Taiwan and the U.S. In the past three years, through joint efforts, Japan and Australia have also been invited as formal partners.

GCTF events have expanded to host countries in Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean, she said. So far, there have been a total of 119 countries that participated in GCTF activities, which focus on issues of global concern, Tsai said.

The partnership between Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S. has continuously improved through these interactions, the president said. In the future, Taiwan will increase efforts to promote the GCTF with Japan and the United States and cooperate with more democratic countries to defend common beliefs and strengthen the resilience of democracy around the world, she said.