Franziska Brantner, German parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, arrived in Taiwan yesterday for a two-day visit, the German Institute Taipei said yesterday, without disclosing further details.
Brantner was to meet with Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui (俞大?), German business daily Handelsblatt reported.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that Yui would welcome Brantner on behalf of the ministry.
Photo from Franziska Brantner’s Facebook page
Exchanges between Taiwan and Germany have been increasing, the ministry said, citing two delegations sent by the German Bundestag to Taiwan last month.
Germany’s governing coalition, which was formed by the Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats in November last year, said that Berlin supports Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, and that the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait could only be changed by a bilateral agreement between Taiwan and China.
Ahead of her trip, Brantner published an article in the Frankfurter Rundschau on Sunday saying that Germany “must find partners to become more independent from China.”
The COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlighted the fragility of international supply chains, as energy, semiconductors, wind turbines and solar panels are all controlled by a few companies, she wrote.
To be more resilient, Germany has to “turn to the world” to diversify risks, with the German government assisting private companies, she added.
Germany plans to engage in “raw material diplomacy,” helping democratic nations extract raw materials while ensuring ecological and social fairness, she wrote.
European Council President Charles Michel echoed the sentiment yesterday, saying before the G20 leaders’ summit in Indonesia that Europe is to engage with China, but needs to “rebalance” the relationship to avoid becoming too reliant on the nation in areas like innovative technology.
Europe would also engage with China despite differences between the two sides, as it was “important to listen to each other, to develop a better understanding,” Michel told a news conference.
However, Europe must avoid making “the same mistakes” it made by relying too heavily on Russian fossil fuels, he said.
Brantner has on several occasions voiced her support for Taiwan. When China imposed economic sanctions on Lithuania for opening a Trade Representative Office in Taipei, Brantner openly expressed her support for Lithuania.
She also attended the 20th Taiwan-Germany Joint Business Council Meeting in August via videoconference, together with Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Chern-chyi (陳正祺).
Economic relations with Germany and the EU have also become closer. From January to last month, Taiwan’s exports to the EU rose 14.9 percent, while imports increased 8.8 percent, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed.
Total trade with the EU last year climbed 32.5 percent to US$68.75 billion, making Taiwan the EU’s 13th-largest trading partner, the DGBAS said.
Bilateral trade in the first 10 months of the year reached US$62.6 billion, up 11.6 percent , it said.
Outbound shipments to Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium accounted for 67.8 percent of Taiwan’s total exports to the EU last year, it said.
In related news, National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) yesterday left Taiwan for a visit to France and Germany.
Wu is to meet German Federal Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger in Berlin to discuss cooperation opportunities in batteries, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and hydrogen energy, German media outlet Deutsche Welle reported.
The German ministry told reporters that Berlin hoped to promote cooperation with Taiwan and other international partners with “a promise of freedom, democracy and human rights,” it reported.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS