The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) military exercises around Taiwan last week intensified risks in the region and threatened global security, top diplomats of G7 countries said on Sunday.
In a joint statement posted on the US Department of State’s Web site, the foreign ministers of Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US expressed “deep concern about China’s provocative actions, particularly the recent large-scale military drills around Taiwan.”
“These increasingly frequent and destabilizing activities are raising cross-strait tensions and put at risk global security and prosperity,” it said.
Photo: Reuters
The statement said G7 countries and the international community as a whole “have an interest in the preservation of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
G7 members “oppose any unilateral actions to threaten such peace and stability, including by force or coercion” and continue to encourage “the peaceful resolution of issues through constructive cross-strait dialogue,” it said.
The PLA’s Eastern Theater Command held its latest exercises in waters around Taiwan on Tuesday and Wednesday last week.
The two-day exercises were meant as “a stern warning” to “Taiwanese independence” separatist forces, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement.
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