Maintaining peace and stability across the Strait is not only Taiwan’s responsibility, but also an important priority for democracies worldwide, a Taiwanese official told a forum in Prague.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Chen Ming-chi (陳明祺) on Friday attended an annual forum by GLOBSEC, a think tank based in Bratislava, and gave a speech on the panel titled: “Taiwan: The Global Imperative for Stability,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement yesterday.
When asked how the Ukraine experience affected Taiwan’s approach to national security, self-defense and survival, Chen used a quote often attributed to Mark Twain, saying that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
“The lesson we learn is that paper is not enough,” he said, referring to the Budapest Memorandum signed in 1994 to guarantee Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and existing borders, and prevent use of force against the nation, and the US’ Taiwan Relations Act passed in 1979.
Taiwan’s No. 1 priority is boosting its defense budget as President William Lai (賴清德) has already announced that the nation plans to spend at least 3 percent of GDP on defense, and it is also reviewing its defense capabilities, he said.
“This is a call to all countries in the free world: If you want peace, you have to prepare for war,” he said. “To strengthen yourself and be able to seek peace through strength.”
Second, just as Ukraine is facing Russia, a much larger adversary, Taiwan is threatened by China, a larger nation, so Taipei should invest in asymmetric warfare, he said.
Taiwan should cooperate with other countries in drone programs, he added.
Third, Taiwan has learned from Ukraine and the Baltic countries that it is important to have a whole-of-society resilience program, ranging from energy resilience to reserve mobilization and civil defense, he said.
The greatest lesson from Ukraine is that Western nations and their allies in Asia did not do enough to prevent the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and gave mixed signals to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Raimond Kaljulaid, a member of the Estonian parliament’s National Defense Committee.
“We should ask ourselves: Are we making the same mistake with Taiwan right now?” Kaljulaid said.
During a conversation, Chen made some suggestions, such as “keep Taiwan on the agenda, not forgetting that it’s an important international issue,” Kaljulaid said.
Estonia should use every opportunity to express solidarity with Taiwanese, because “at the end of the day, it is about Taiwanese babies sleeping soundly, not having to go to kindergarten in a bomb shelter,” which is what China is threatening them with, he said.
Regarding China’s increasing push to limit Taiwan’s international space, Chen said it is important that all democracies invest in the “pool of goodwill” and help each other.
While China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are helping each other, democracies should stop thinking that it might be inconvenient for their relationship with Beijing if they support Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, he said, adding that instead they should “let Taiwan be your partner.”
Democracies should support Taiwan for its vibrant democracy and other merits, he said.
They should call out China’s interference in their countries’ affairs, including limiting their right to build a relationship with Taiwan, as well as Beijing’s misinterpretation of the UN Resolution 2758, which it might use as pretext for an invasion.
The international community must act early, Chen said, adding that inclusion, cooperation and credible deterrence are key to preserving peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
Other speakers at the panel included Czech Senator Pavel Fischer, chairman of the Czech Senate’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security; Ukraine parliament member and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence Yehor Cherniev, and former Ukrainian minister of defense Oleksii Reznikov.
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