President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday emphasized his administration’s commitment to strengthening Taiwan’s military capabilities and security cooperation with allies, reiterating the nation’s target to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP by 2030.
Lai made the comments in a meeting with a group of international lawmakers from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) at the Presidential Office in Taipei.
The delegation included former British Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, former Polish minister of foreign affairs Anna Fotyga, Swedish lawmaker Magnus Berntsson, and IPAC cofounder and executive director Luke de Pulford.
Photo: CNA
Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安), National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) also attended the event.
Lai told the delegation that China’s relentless campaign of intimidation and saber rattling against its neighbors and other nations significantly threatens regional peace and stability, while its alliance with authoritarian powers, including Russia, threatened democracies across the world.
Democratic nations have no choice but to combine their deterrence capabilities to defend peace, freedom and democracy, he said.
Photo: CNA
The government is raising next fiscal year’s military budget to 3.32 percent of GDP with the aim of reaching 5 percent over the next five years, in line with NATO’s defense spending goal, he said.
The nation would bolster its self-defense capabilities to contribute to peace and stability in the region, and forge hardened supply chains aimed at creating a resilient economy in collaboration with its democratic partners, he said.
Taiwan’s economic outreach is focused on forging mutually beneficial ties in the energy, artificial intelligence and technology sectors with its partners, Lai said, adding that cooperation would bring prosperity and reinforce democracy at home.
The IPAC showed its support for Taiwan in July last year, sending a delegation and issuing a statement disputing Beijing’s interpretation of UN Resolution 2758, he said.
The alliance’s actions led to a wave of pro-Taiwan resolutions in the EU, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and the UK, he said, adding that he hoped more nations would come forward to support Taiwan.
The IPAC has expressed its concern over China’s drills that encircled Taiwan in April, and condemned Chinese intelligence agents’ plot to crash a car into Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) vehicle during her visit to the Czech Republic in March last year, he said.
It also facilitated former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) participation in this year’s Copenhagen Democracy Summit, Lai said.
Duncan Smith urged democracies to stand with Taiwan against growing threats from China, saying that Beijing’s authoritarian regime “plots and plans the demise of Taiwan.”
Too “many Western governments in the pursuit of trade now seem prepared to turn a blind eye to the brutal behavior of China,” he said, calling it “a modern form of appeasement.”
On Tuesday, Hsiao said that China’s bullying would not intimidate Taiwan in abandoning democracy or shake the commitment of Taiwanese to defend their hard-won freedoms.
She made the comments at a banquet hosted by the IPAC and nonprofit organization Hello Taiwan in Taipei, after thanking the alliance for its unequivocal support of Taiwan in confronting the authoritarian challenge posed by Beijing.
Taiwan’s free and democratic form of government, which was achieved at a great cost to Taiwanese, has been crucial to its ability to garner international goodwill and support from organizations such as IPAC, she said.
Taiwanese will not bow to China’s bullying, intimidation or coercion, Hsiao said.
“We are proud to call ourselves Taiwanese, proud of all that the nation has achieved, and proud of our faith in what Taiwan will achieve, no matter how hard it is to be Taiwanese,” she said.
Taiwan continues to work with like-minded friends and partners in its struggle to preserve democracy, Hsiao said.
Additional reporting by Huang Ching-hsuang
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