Joint exercises aimed at safeguarding lives and assets in the waters have not taken place for ten years
A maritime search-and-rescue organization in Taiwan has urged both sides of the Taiwan Strait to collaborate on ocean rescue drills.
The Taiwan Strait ranks among the world's busiest maritime routes for commercial vessels and fishing boats, with severe weather and sea conditions making it a high-risk area for incidents.
Maritime search-and-rescue efforts had been a consistent area of collaboration between Beijing and Taipei, but joint exercises ceased in 2016 following the assumption of power by the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party.
Beijing and Taipei conducted joint search-and-rescue drills on three occasions between 2010 and 2014 in waters near mainland Chinese cities and Taiwan's outlying islands, as part of a sea transport agreement signed in 2008 that called for the "establishment of a search-and-rescue coordination mechanism."