Taiwan has founded a new international body, the World Alliance for Disaster Management (WADM), a rare diplomatic win for Taipei as it tries to build ties abroad while facing growing pressure from China.

• President Lai Ching-te announced the alliance at a civil-defense resilience forum, calling it Taiwan's biggest breakthrough in international organizations in 50 years.
• Founding members are Taiwan's 11 diplomatic allies plus Somaliland, with governments, agencies, and disaster groups from 21 countries including the US, Japan, the UK, Germany, Poland, Turkey, and the Philippines joining as observers or partners.
• The alliance will run joint drills, share warning data, and coordinate relief, positioning Taiwan as a hub for cross-border disaster response under the "Taiwan Can Help" banner.
• Lai tied civil defense to military readiness: this year's urban resilience drills ran alongside the Han Kuang war games, and next year's defense budget tops NT$1 trillion for the first time, above 3% of GDP, with a goal of 5% by 2030.
• Lai framed the effort as democracies answering authoritarian threats with resilience and unity, saying "peace depends on strength, strength on resilience, resilience on unity."

Outlook: Expect joint disaster exercises with partner countries and continued defense spending increases as Taiwan uses soft-power cooperation to widen its international footing ahead of the November local elections.