The launch was announced at the opening of a forum on whole-of-society resilience and defense. Taiwan's 11 diplomatic allies and Somaliland became founding members, while 21 countries including the United States, Japan, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and the Philippines joined as observers or partners.

The alliance aims to promote joint training, combined exercises, mutual support and information sharing, linking prevention, response and recovery into a single chain and positioning Taiwan as a hub for international disaster relief cooperation.

The foreign ministry presented Taiwan's experience in disaster response as an asset for the international community, citing early warning systems, earthquake-resistant design and medical response built up in an environment of frequent quakes and typhoons.

For a Taiwan long limited in its access to international bodies, the approach creates contact points on multilateral ground through functional cooperation. Choosing a field as politically light as disaster management fits the same logic.

The move interests Korea and Japan as well. Practical cooperation on earthquakes, typhoons and major fires has proceeded separately from questions of political status before, which is why the alliance's actual operating method is being watched.