RECIPROCITY: Taiwan hopes to resume stationing military police at its offices in the US to show that military cooperation between the two nations has ‘entered a new stage’
By Su Yung-yao and Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Taipei Times
Date: Jul 29, 2018
By: Su Yung-yao and Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The US is to station Marine security guards at the American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT)
The US national flag flies over the American Institute in Taiwan compound in Taipei’s Neihu District during the building’s dedication on June 12. Photo: CNA
new complex in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), which is to begin operations in September, sources familiar with the matter said.
The mission of Marine security guards is different from that of other US Marines, whose primary mission is combat, the sources said.
According to internal US mechanisms, before sending the guards overseas, the US assesses the safety conditions of the country and of the embassy facilities, and uses this information to determine how many guards to send, they said.
Rather than an increase in security standards, the stationing of the guards at the AIT could be considered a representation of how much the US values its relationship with Taiwan, they said.
In response to media speculation that US Marines would be stationed at the complex, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said that the AIT’s internal security arrangements are its own affair and that the Presidential Office has no comment.
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