The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday thanked France and the UK for supporting cross-strait peace and stability, and closer ties with the Indo-Pacific region.
“France and the United Kingdom reaffirm the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and call for the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues,” the two countries said in a joint leaders’ declaration issued after the 36th Franco-British Summit on Friday last week.
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak chaired the summit at the Elysee Palace in Paris. The last one was held at Sandhurst, England, in January 2018.
Photo: AFP
In the declaration, the two leaders also voiced concerns about “China’s challenge to the rules-based international order” and pledged to “work with partners to manage increasing systemic rivalry and competition.”
“They will continue to raise their concerns with China on its human rights violations and abuses, including in Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as over the continued erosion of Hong Kong’s rights, freedoms and autonomy,” the declaration said.
They also called on China to shoulder its responsibilities as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to refrain from providing material assistance to help Russia, or Russian proxies, in its illegal war in Ukraine.
Regarding the Indo-Pacific region, the two leaders hope to deepen engagement with the region to “intensify economic, security and rules-based partnerships supporting a Free and Open Indo-Pacific,” the declaration said.
They would do so by developing dialogue on the region concerning economic security and strategic stability, and expanding cooperation to help small island developing states in the region with issues such as access to finance and economic resilience, it said.
France and the UK would work with European partners to “enable a European presence that is as persistent and effective as possible” in the region, it added.
The ministry in a statement yesterday welcomed the declaration, and thanked the two countries for their concerns about the situation across the Taiwan Strait.
“It is of great significance that the two major players in Europe expressed their joint concern for peace in the Taiwan Strait,” the ministry said.
In a policy recommendation report about the UK’s Integrated Review published by the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in December last year, the committee voiced support for Taiwan and called on China not to use force to change the cross-strait “status quo,” the ministry said.
France has also repeatedly demonstrated its support for Taiwan, including in last year’s updated Indo-Pacific strategy and at the Foreign and Defense Ministerial Consultations with Australia this year, it said.
These gestures show that protecting peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is a consensus among international democracies, and an indispensable part of maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific, the ministry said.
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