A member of the European Parliament (MEP) on Thursday called for international cooperation to protect democratic institutions during a visit by former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to the parliament complex in Brussels.
“It is the sovereign right of every European country to develop relations with Taiwan,” Slovakian MEP Miriam Lexmann told a reception for Tsai attended by about 50 members of the European Parliament.
China is “the biggest threat to the global peace and security,” Lexmann said, calling for cooperation among partners in the increasingly complex global geopolitical landscape to protect democratic institutions and boost economic development.
Photo: CNA
She later told the Central News Agency that the EU could not let Beijing “abuse the one China policy” and thus hamper the bloc from developing its own cooperation with Taiwan.
Lexmann is a member of the Slovakian Christian Democratic Movement and affiliated with the European People’s Party, the largest party in the European Parliament.
She was one of the MEPs sanctioned by the Chinese government in 2021 in a tit-for-tat response to the EU’s restrictive measures against four Chinese officials for human rights abuses against Uighurs.
German MEP Engin Eroglu, who heads the European Parliament’s China Delegation, said on social media after the reception that Taiwan is “a true partner to the EU” and that the EU “must do everything in its power” to prevent a military conflict in the region.
“The EU will continue to support Taiwan and further strengthen our friendship-based partnership,” Eroglu said, adding that by working together, the two sides can “face the challenges ahead and promote shared values of democracy and freedom.”
During her address, Tsai said that compromising sovereignty and yielding to authoritarian aggression will not bring about peace.
“Peace cannot be achieved by yielding to authoritarian aggression or by compromising our sovereignty and democratic way of life,” she said. “To uphold peace, one needs to be strong and determined.”
Tsai urged the global democratic community to continue to stand together in opposing and deterring Beijing’s “maritime and airspace incursions,” which she said were aimed at altering the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait and jeopardizing regional stability.
At the same time, Taiwan is “eager” to deepen its connections with the world, and stands ready to share its best practices in areas such as economic and technological development, public health and the fight against disinformation, she said.
Taiwan is also “a crucial and trusted partner” in efforts to improve global supply chains and economic security, she added.
“I hope the European Parliament and the national parliaments of the EU member states will continue to support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations,” Tsai said.
Tsai arrived in Brussels on Thursday, the last stop of her week-long European tour.
It was the first visit to the European Parliament branch in the Belgian capital by a former Taiwanese president.
The European tour, which has also included stops in the Czech Republic and France, is Tsai’s first overseas trip after leaving office in May.
After meeting with Tsai earlier this week, Czech Republic Senator Pavel Fischer called on his government to take a tougher stance on China.
Fischer wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that he, his colleagues and Tsai discussed bilateral cooperation in trade and economics and education between Taiwan and the Czech Republic.
“Despite Taiwan being on the other side of the globe, we must care about what happens in its vicinity. Security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific directly influence the Euro-Atlantic area and vice versa. Our security and prosperity are closely linked,” Fischer added.
The senator urged his government to take a tougher stance against China at the UN over its “unacceptable behavior” targeting Taiwan, including, for instance, summoning China’s ambassador to express concern.
The Czech government has promised to review relations with China, but provided no further updates on the efforts, saying only that the review process is ongoing, he said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS