TAIPEI (Reuters) – Ruling parties in Taiwan and Japan agreed on “comprehensive semiconductor cooperation” on Friday and pledged to meet regularly, Taiwanese lawmakers said after what constitutes de facto discussions between the two governments.
While Taiwan, considered a renegade province by China, and Japan do not have official diplomatic ties, they have close unofficial ties and both share concerns about Beijing.
The talks, which were attended by two high-ranking parliamentarians from the Taiwan Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) and the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (PLD), took place via video conference and follow initial consultations held in late August.
Chips are not only a problem for Japanese industry which, like the rest of the world, has faced a semiconductor shortage but also falls under the country’s security against China, told reporters. PDP parliamentarian Chiu Chih-Wei.
“The two parties agreed that in the future there will be more cooperation on supply chains, the establishment of a comprehensive framework, the deployment of a system, to have comprehensive cooperation in the semiconductor field and other industries that both countries attach importance to, “he said.
Japanese officials said they had agreed with the Taiwanese side that the two countries, as well as the United States, should cooperate to build robust supply chains in areas such as semiconductors.
“We must do everything possible to deal with the semiconductor shortage at this time but the areas of cooperation should expand as we move forward,” Akimasa Ishikawa, a Liberal Democrat MP, told reporters. who attended the meeting.
“One of the main challenges will be how the three countries support each other in response to Chinese investments in high technology,” he added.
(Report Ben Blanchard with KiyoshiTakenaka in Tokyo, French version Khadija Adda-Rezig, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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