TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Institute for National Defense and Security Research announced on Monday that it will hold a Taipei security forum on Wednesday, focusing on integrated deterrence.

Domestic and international scholars and experts will gather to discuss topics including global integrated security trends, social resilience and deterrence, and asymmetric approaches to regional security, CNA reported. The goal is to foster dialogue and exchange views to help democracies build consensus and strengthen cooperation to maintain peace in the Indo-Pacific, INDSR said.

Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Peter Su (蘇思睿), former director of Taiwan affairs at the Pentagon, former Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Rear Admiral Takahiro Sasaki, and retired German Navy Rear Admiral Karsten Schneider are attending.

The forum comes as China bolsters its missile firepower along its east coast in preparation for a Taiwan invasion. The Pentagon estimated in its 2024 China Military Power Report that China’s Rocket Force has approximately 3,500 missiles in its arsenal, nearly 50% more than four years ago. 

China has built new and larger bases and expanded launch sites for advanced systems like the hypersonic Dongfeng-17 and Dongfeng-26, which can strike US bases in the Pacific.

Chinese soldiers are also training in valleys and farmland, simulating rapid launches near Taiwan’s shores.