Former Australian prime minster Tony Abbott yesterday arrived in Taiwan to attend an international forum.
Abbott arrived at Taoyuan International Airport on a Singapore Airlines flight at about 1:45pm and was greeted by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光).
The two declined to give public statements at the airport.
Abbott is in Taiwan mainly to deliver a keynote address at the annual Yushan Forum to be held on Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The forum, in its fifth iteration this year, is a Taiwan-initiated regional dialogue that seeks to bolster the nation’s ties with ASEAN, Australia, India and New Zealand.
Abbott would also meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) tomorrow, as well as other senior government officials, the ministry said.
He is visiting Taiwan under a so-called “diplomatic bubble” that exempts him from undergoing certain COVID-19 prevention and quarantine measures, it said, without elaborating.
Under normal circumstances, all arrivals in Taiwan are required to quarantine for 14 days.
Abbott, who served as prime minister from 2013 to 2015, told an Australian joint parliamentary committee on Sept. 30 that he is “strongly in favor” of Taiwan joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and that the only argument against Taiwan being admitted is that it might upset China.
However, given that China is not a member of the CPTPP and is unlikely to become one, “I don’t see that China is going to be any more upset than it already is,” he said.
Abbott said any country that wants to join the trade bloc needs to “play by the rules,” and China should not be allowed to join the CPTPP until it drops its boycott of Australian goods and stops weaponizing trade.
Taiwan applied to join the agreement on Sept. 22, less than a week after China did.
The CPTPP, which grew out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership after the US left the pact in January 2017, is one of the world’s largest trade blocs, representing a market of 500 million people and accounting for 13.5 percent of global trade.
Its 11 signatories are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
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