Taiwan Sea Rescue Head Calls for Joint Drills with China

The head of a Taiwanese sea search-and-rescue group has called on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to work together on maritime emergency drills.

The Taiwan Strait is one of the world’s busiest waterways for both commercial shipping and fishing, and the tough weather and sea conditions have made the strait a high-risk zone for accidents.

Maritime search and rescue had been an area of sustained cooperation between Beijing and Taipei but joint drills stopped in 2016, when the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party took power.

Beijing and Taipei conducted joint search-and-rescue exercises three times between 2010 and 2014 in waters near mainland cities and Taiwan’s outlying islands under a sea transport agreement signed in 2008, which included the “establishment of a search-and-rescue coordination mechanism”.