Former Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and former Slovenian prime minister Janez Jansa yesterday voiced their support for Taiwan at the Yushan Forum in Taipei.
This year’s two-day forum focuses on strengthening regional cooperation.
Rasmussen told the two-day forum that since his first visit in 1994, he has seen Taiwan’s remarkable transformation over the past 30 years, and “today it stands as a beacon of liberty, a testament to how people thrive in freedom.”
Photo: screen grab from the Presidential Office’s Flickr page
In the context of shifting global dynamics, he emphasized the importance of Indo-Pacific partners engaging in dialogue about the region’s future and reaffirmed Europe’s enduring commitment to Taiwan.
“[Chinese] President Xi [Jinping (習近平)] is watching Ukraine, and we must not send a signal by our collective weakness that aggression pays off for dictators,” Rasmussen said. “What happens in the Indo-Pacific matters very much for the freedom and security of all of Europe.”
Urging stronger political, economic and cultural ties between Taiwan and Europe, Rasmussen said that cooperation should not only be driven by short-term interests, but by “common values and a shared belief in each other’s freedom, democracy and prosperity.”
Photo: screen grab from the Presidential Office’s Flickr page
“In an increasingly aggressive and dangerous world, true friends need to stick together,” he said. “Democracies must work together to protect and promote freedom and democracy, and Taiwan belongs to our family of democracies.”
In a keynote address at a luncheon later yesterday, he urged Europe to forge closer relations with Taiwan on all fronts, particularly with the return of US President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy.
Europe must step up and pay the price needed to defend itself, meaning more defense spending, more investment in critical infrastructure and more focus on societal resilience, he said.
“In some ways, President Trump is doing us a favor. This kind of changed mindset has been needed in Europe for some time,” said the Danish politician, who also served as NATO secretary-general from August 2009 to October 2014.
Meanwhile, Jansa told the forum that the world has been changing at an accelerating pace in the past decade, driven by two key factors — technological advancements and the rising power of autocratic regimes.
“In many ways, unfortunately, we are witnessing the cold war of the 21st century unfold,” he said, adding that Europe is grappling with the devastating war in Ukraine.
While the EU is beginning to rearm, the process will take time, especially as Iran’s aggressive actions demand significant European resources in the Middle East, he said, adding that based on historical patterns and strategic logic, it can be predicted that the focus might soon shift to the Indo-Pacific region.
“Taiwan is increasingly becoming a crucial pillar of peace and stability, not only for the Indo-Pacific region, but the entire world,” Jansa said.
However, for decades, Taiwan’s hard-won freedom, democracy, prosperity and progress have been under attack, he said.
Values are not only threatened by brute force and invasion, but also through subversion and cultural warfare, including infiltration and acquisition of media, universities, cultural institutions and non-governmental organizations, he added.
“Autocratic regimes can exploit the freedom and openness of democracies, dividing them from within, through psychological warfare, and we must be fully aware of this danger,” he said.
Jansa cited how Taiwan’s economic power positions it as a key player in the democratic supply chains.
Democracies have many reasons to support Taiwan in defending its sovereignty, preserving its free and democratic way of life, and maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait while opposing any attempts by China to annex it, Jansa said.
He added that freedom-loving people in the EU would always stand by democratic Taiwan and its 23 million citizens in their right to determine their own future.
Additional reporting by CNA
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