The EU cannot tolerate increasing human rights abuses or remain silent in the face of an increasingly expansionist and aggressive foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific region and on a global scale, European Parliament Vice President Fabio Massimo Castaldo said in reference to China.
Castaldo made the remarks in an interview with Italian daily Il Manifesto published on Friday.
Compared with China’s advances in the region, Taiwan presents an alternative model, Castaldo said.
Photo: Reuters
The importance of deepening relations with Taiwan lies in that the nation and the EU share the values of democracy and freedom based on pluralism, and they fully respect the rule of law, he said.
If the EU wants to bolster its diplomatic and economic presence in the Indo-Pacific region amid intensifying confrontations between rival powers, it would be impossible not to develop closer relations with partners that share common values and principles, including Taiwan, Japan, India, Indonesia and South Korea, he said.
Castaldo also commented on a report passed last week by the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs urging the EU to improve its relations with Taiwan.
The report says that the EU is increasingly concerned with China’s activities in the Indo-Pacific region, Castaldo said.
In the report, he emphasized Taiwan’s important position in the global supply chain and said that China has continued to obstruct the nation’s access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Regarding China’s retaliatory measures against Lithuania’s rapprochement with Taiwan and its protest against members of the European Parliament following the report, Castaldo used Hong Kong as an example, saying that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government had twice vetoed EU declarations of support for Hong Kong, undermining the internal solidarity of the EU.
The EU’s foreign policy cannot be taken hostage by vetoes or influenced by governments with financial interests, he said.
If the bloc’s 27 member states can act in unity, they would become leading figures in international politics, economy and diplomacy, he said.
On the other hand, if they are divided, they would be vulnerable and become irrelevant, he said.
Castaldo added on Facebook that it was time for Europe to strongly support bolstering relations with Taiwan.
Castado is the youngest European Parliament vice president in history, elected to office in 2017 at the age of 32.
He is a non-attached member of the European Parliament and a member of Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement, the largest party in the country’s parliament.
PALAU LAUNCHES: The source said that Taiwanese military personnel traveled to Palau, where a US brigade watched their work amid plans for a defense network The military last month participated in live-fire launches of MM-104F Patriot (PAC-3) missiles under US observation in an undisclosed location in Palau, a step forward in a US-led plan to create a joint defense missile system in the first island chain, a source said on condition of anonymity. The PAC-3 is the mainstay surface-to-air missile of the US, NATO and democratic nations in East Asia, the source said, adding that it has never been live-tested within Taiwan’s borders, the source said. The proximity of Taiwan to China and China’s close surveillance of the nation’s borders and nearby sea zones is a significant
IN MOURNING: Tsai visited the site and spoke with family members of those killed, while all the major presidential candidates said they would temporarily halt campaigning A fire and subsequent explosions at a golf ball factory at Pingtung Technology Industrial Park (屏東科技產業園區) killed at least seven people, including four firefighters, and injured 98, while three were still missing, authorities said yesterday. The blaze at Launch Technologies Co’s (明揚國際) plant on Jingjian Road raged for more than 12 hours after it started at about 5pm on Friday, officials said. The Pingtung County Fire Bureau early yesterday used large excavators to search for missing people, while family members waited at the scene. Pingtung County Fire Bureau Director Hsu Mei-hsueh (許美雪) said the bureau received a call about the fire at 5:31pm
DETERRENCE: The president on Thursday is to launch the first indigenous submarine, which is to enter sea trials next month before being delivered to the navy next year Taiwan hopes to deploy at least two new, domestically developed submarines by 2027, and possibly equip later models with missiles to bolster its deterrence against the Chinese navy and protect key supply lines, the head of the program said. Taiwan has made the Indigenous Submarine Program a key part of an ambitious project to modernize its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who initiated the program when she took office in 2016, is expected to launch the first of eight new submarines on Thursday under a plan that has drawn on expertise and technology from
FISHING FUROR: The latest spat was sparked by a floating barrier that was found across the entrance of Scarborough Shoal during a resupply mission to fishers Beijing yesterday warned Manila not to “stir up trouble” after the Philippine Coast Guard said it removed a floating barrier at a disputed reef that was allegedly deployed by China to block Filipino fishers from the area. Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in the South China Sea has long been a source of tension between the nations. China seized the ring of reefs from the Philippines in 2012 and has since deployed patrol boats. The latest spat was sparked by a 300m floating barrier that was found across the entrance of the shoal last week during a routine Philippine government resupply mission
RSS