TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan's defence ministry said on Wednesday it intends to deepen collaboration with the United States, including reciprocal visits and observation of military exercises, to help maintain peace and stability in the region.
The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, but is the island's most important international backer and is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.
In a report to parliament, the ministry said the United States is an important strategic partner.
"Our armed forces continue to strengthen Taiwan-U.S. communication channels and advance multi-domain, multi-level strategic cooperation on defence and security," it said, ahead of Defence Minister Wellington Koo taking lawmaker questions on Thursday.
"Looking ahead, we plan to gradually expand and deepen cooperation," it added.
Those areas include high-level strategic and security policy dialogues and reciprocal visits, observation of exercises and discussions on operational issues "so as to jointly maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait", the ministry said.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of Washington business hours.
Military interactions between Taiwan and the U.S. are already close, including Taiwanese F-16 fighter pilots training in Arizona, though such collaborations normally remain outside the public spotlight given their sensitive nature.
Taiwan has complained of stepped up military and political pressure from China, including regular Chinese war games around the island.
The ministry, in its report, said China is conducting "normalised" harassment, including using so-called "joint combat-readiness patrols".
"These measures aim to exert psychological coercion and tactical deterrence against us, wear down our defence capacity, and demonstrate an ability to deny third-party intervention -together creating a severe regional security challenge."
China's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taiwan's defence ministry said that it has been using "channels for international exchange and cooperation to share intelligence resources and technology". That way, Taiwan can better track key warning indicators of Chinese military activity, assess possible future courses of action, and "secure early warning to enable rapid responses and prevent a surprise attack", it added. It did not provide further details.
Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's people can decide their future.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
