Taiwan coast guard sends Chiayi and new cutter Penghu to Palau on second Friendship Fleet voyage

Two Taiwanese Coast Guard Administration (CGA) patrol vessels have arrived in Palau on a combined long-range training voyage and diplomatic visit, the agency's second Friendship Fleet deployment to the Pacific ally in two years.

The CGA's Fleet Branch said on Wednesday, 7 October, that the 4,000-tonne-class Chiayi and the 1,000-tonne-class Penghu left Taiwan last week and docked at Malakal Harbor on Tuesday, 6 October. The branch described the deployment as its 2026 long-range training and coast guard diplomacy project.

The Penghu was delivered to the coast guard only on 21 July this year, making the voyage an early long-distance test for the new cutter. The CGA said the trip was meant to verify the vessels' seakeeping performance, strengthen coordination between the two ships and build experience in far-seas operations.

Drills, cadets and a presidential call

During the passage the crews carried out a series of drills to validate their professional skills, including two-ship coordination, and to confirm that the vessels met operational standards, according to the Fleet Branch. Fourth-year students and instructors from the Department of Maritime Police at Central Police University are sailing with the ships as interns.

While the vessels are in port, a delegation led by CGA Deputy Director-General Hsu Ching-chih is expected to call on Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. together with Taiwanese diplomats posted in Palau. The programme also includes friendly pickleball and swimming matches with local officials, and a reception and joint flag-raising ceremony aboard the Chiayi marking Taiwan's National Day.

After the port visit, the two ships are scheduled to conduct a joint patrol with Palauan law enforcement units under the bilateral coast guard cooperation agreement the two governments signed in 2019. The CGA said the mission combined new-ship validation, cross-ship training, talent development and coast guard diplomacy, and that it would continue to build international maritime partnerships.

From one-off voyage to routine

The CGA sent its first goodwill flotilla to Palau in September 2025. That voyage paired the 4,000-tonne Taipei with the 1,000-tonne Hualien, both then brand new, and ran from 11 to 24 September, departing from and returning to Taipei Port. Crews used the trip to test equipment on the newly built ships while police university students trained aboard.

During that visit Whipps told the CGA delegation he hoped such visits could become regular and proposed monthly joint coast guard patrols between the two countries, stressing that presence is deterrence, according to the CGA's account at the time. Palauan ministers also said they wanted closer maritime law-enforcement cooperation against illegal fishing and smuggling.

The 2025 delegation was led by Fleet Branch Director Huang Hsuan-kai, and Taiwan's ambassador to Palau, Jessica Lee, said at the time that the goodwill fleet underscored the strength of the bilateral friendship and Taiwan's contribution to peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. The CGA called that visit a new chapter for the agency and pledged to expand exchanges with Taiwan's diplomatic allies.

The 2019 agreement was signed to strengthen Palau's ability to counter illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and other crimes in its marine sanctuary, and Taiwan donated two multi-purpose boats to Palau in 2021, Taiwan News reported.

China Times reported that the coast guard plans to make such deployments a regular practice. Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said CGA vessels are due to visit the Philippines in October 2027 for a goodwill voyage of about eight days, carrying roughly 100 coast guard personnel and police university students. It said that would be the first formal goodwill visit to the Philippines by Taiwanese government ships of a maritime law-enforcement and military character in 53 years. The CGA has not publicly confirmed that plan.

The newspaper noted that the Republic of China Navy has long sent an annual goodwill flotilla to visit diplomatic allies on training cruises, and that the coast guard has now followed suit for a second consecutive year.