European countries have gained a new understanding of Taiwan in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, former Estonian prime minister Andrus Ansip said in Taipei yesterday, while calling for more cooperation in cybersecurity, as well as the semiconductor industry.
Ansip, a member of the European Parliament, was speaking at the Ketagalan Forum, an annual event focused on security in the Indo-Pacific region co-organized by the government
Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and China’s pro-Russian reaction to the war “has made Europeans think deeply about Taiwan,” Ansip said.
Photo: Screenshot from the forum’s livestream
Taiwan and the EU are important trading partners, with bilateral trade, including goods and services, valued at more than 73 billion euros (US$79.9 billion), he said, adding that the EU is the largest foreign investor in Taiwan.
While conducting business in China, European companies are often required to either establish a joint venture with a Chinese company or to share their technological secrets, Ansip said.
His remark that Europeans should be concerned about Chinese technology firm Huawei was met with sharp reactions from the Chinese embassy and Huawei, he said.
“The tensions around Huawei, in addition to the lack of reciprocity in relations with China caused frustrations among Europeans,” who were also concerned about the situation in Hong Kong, human rights violations in Xinjiang and Chinese disinformation and cyberattacks, Ansip said.
“Many people started to realize that China is a multifaceted information manipulation actor with a rich arsenal,” he said.
Ansip called on European countries and Taiwan, as well as other like-minded partners, to bolster cooperation in cybersecurity.
Russia’s war in Ukraine also highlighted the danger of dependencies on critical supplies from certain countries, such as gas from Russia and strategic raw materials from China, he said.
A lack of secure access to materials such as lithium and niobium would hinder the global shift toward renewable energy and digitization, and threaten security, Ansip said.
In addition to promulgating the Critical Raw Materials Act, the EU should cooperate with like-minded democratic partners to reduce dependencies and increase the production of critical materials, he said.
The European Chips Act is an attempt to upgrade the EU’s production of chips, he said, adding that “Taiwanese investments into the European chip industry are warmly welcomed.”
Ansip said he regretted the lack of effort to foster closer economic, cultural, medical and people-to-people ties with Taiwan while he was a prime minister from 2005 to 2014.
“Taiwan refutes the claims of authoritarian regimes that democracy and the free market economy are not suitable for Asian or Russian people. I admire Taiwan and your free people,” he said.
Ansip called on democracies to cooperate more closely .
“No democracy should be left alone. We must stick together to stand up to aggression or to those threatening with aggression. We must all be with Taiwan,” he said.
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