US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday pledged that their countries would “coordinate on our concerns” regarding China and reiterated the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
“The presidents reaffirm the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Biden and Macron said in a joint statement after they held talks at the White House.
“The United States and France will continue to coordinate on our concerns regarding China’s challenge to the rules-based international order, including respect for human rights, and to work together with China on important global issues like climate change,” the statement said.
Photo: AFP
In Taipei yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked the presidents for publicly reaffirming their concern over cross-strait peace and stability.
It was the first time that the presidents of the US and France have broached the topic in a joint statement, the ministry said.
It also noted the numerous recent occasions on which the Biden administration has expressed concern for cross-strait stability in joint statements with other leaders, including those of Australia, Japan and South Korea.
Photo: AFP
As a responsible democracy, Taiwan would continue to bolster its self-defense capabilities and work with like-minded nations to jointly defend against authoritarianism, it added.
Macron’s trip to Washington was the first state visit by a foreign president to the US since Biden took office in January last year.
The Biden-Macron statement comes weeks after Antoine Bondaz, director of the Taiwan Program at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, told the Central News Agency in an interview that the French government had ignored Taiwan over the past few decades.
Photo: AFP
In October last year, when Biden and Macron met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome, the two leaders did not mention China or the Taiwan Strait in their joint statement.
However, Paris’ focus has shifted, with French authorities mentioning the importance of Taiwan and cross-strait ties several times, reflecting the unprecedented attention the country gives to Taiwan, Bondaz said.
France in a report last month warned of China’s increasingly “assertive” efforts to change the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, Bondaz said.
The report, titled “the 2022 National Strategic Review,” says that Beijing is likely observing Western cohesion on Ukraine and the impact of sanctions against Russia, as it assesses what sanctions it might face in the event of a “major crisis,” apparently referencing possible military actions against Taiwan.
The Biden-Macron statement also said that the US and France aimed to bolster their partnership in the Indo-Pacific region to enhance “prosperity, security and shared values based on a rules-based international order, transparent governance, fair economic practices and respect for international law, including freedom of navigation.”
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