Washington: Retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery on Friday called for bilateral military exercises between the United States and Taiwan, saying Taiwan must also train for Chinese economic warfare, both of which are missing from this year’s Han Kuang military drills.

According to Focus Taiwan, Montgomery, while speaking at a Hudson Institute panel on Taiwan’s defense readiness, highlighted that the Han Kuang exercise, currently underway through July 18, focuses solely on a full-scale Chinese invasion but neglects more probable scenarios. These scenarios include cyber-driven economic attacks targeting Taiwan’s financial, energy, and communications systems.

He emphasized that the absence of U.S.-Taiwan joint drills is a significant oversight, attributing it to U.S. reluctance. Montgomery noted, “There is only one really big country in the world, and it’s not China, it’s the United States, and we need to act like it when we deal with them.” He warned that without joint exercises, the two sides lack the ability to coordinate effectively in a real conflict scenario.

Montgomery pointed out that Taiwan and the U.S. are not prepared to fight together. He stressed the importance of interoperability, shared equipment, and synchronized tactics, which are currently lacking.

Fellow panelist and Hudson researcher Bryan Clark concurred with Montgomery. Participating remotely, Clark emphasized that defending Taiwan necessitates minimizing U.S. casualties through coordinated action, firepower, and the use of unmanned systems. “We can only do that if we start to do these exercises together and build the command and control and communications interoperability between the two countries so that if we don’t do that, we’re simply setting ourselves up for escalation followed by capitulation,” he said.