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.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS