Australia needs to deepen engagement with Taiwan to maintain the status quo of peace, a former Australian envoy to Taiwan said on Tuesday.
“The challenge facing Taiwan and the region is not a hypothetical future,” Jenny Bloomfield, the Australian representative to Taiwan from 2021 to 2023, wrote in the Sydney-based Financial Review on Tuesday. “It’s underway right now, from cyberattacks and interference operations to military build-up and increasing aggression across the Indo-Pacific region. And the best way to respond is for Australia and its partners to deepen engagement with Taiwan, and to continue to invest in their strategic resilience and capabilities.”
“Taiwan stands on the front line of the challenge against the rules-based order. A like-minded Indo-Pacific democracy of 23.5 million people situated on the strategically important first island chain, and key to global trade, producing more than 90 percent of the world’s advanced chips and with half of the world’s container ships passing annually through the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan matters to Australia and the world,” she said.
Photo courtesy of Australian Office in Taipei
“Taiwan’s security is critical to regional stability and global prosperity, and consequently to Australia’s future... Deepening engagement with Taiwan in areas of common interest, from energy security to technology and resilience-building to supply chains, and continuing to invest in our own national capabilities, can help counter these threats by discouraging those who might think conflict is worth the risk. This can help maintain the peaceful status quo, encouraging differences to be resolved peacefully through dialogue,” she added.
The commentary was published following Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s second official visit to China earlier this month, amid reports that the Pentagon had pressed Canberra and Tokyo to clarify their roles if China invades Taiwan.
Albanese reiterated at a news conference in Shanghai that his government supports the “status quo” when it comes to Taiwan and does not support “any unilateral action” to alter the cross-strait balance.
Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy on July 13 said that the “decision to commit Australian troops to a conflict will be made by the government of the day.”
While acknowledging renewed calls regarding Canberra’s role in a potential military conflict in the Taiwan Strait, Bloomfield emphasized that maintaining strong ties with Taiwan would serve the country’s best interests.
Two-way trade between Taiwan and Australia exceeded A$40 billion (US$26.4 billion) when she was the Australian representative in Taiwan, she said, adding that Australia became Taiwan’s largest energy and resources provider.
Taiwan was Australia’s fourth-largest energy market, with new ventures in offshore wind, solar, hydrogen, as well as energy storage technology, she added.
Australia was also the second-most popular educational destination for young Taiwanese after the US, she said.
Aside from forming a new health and biotechnology partnership, the two countries also boosted financial service links, with 10 Taiwanese banks establishing branches in Australia, the largest number of foreign banks in the country, she said.
“Together with Canada and New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan became founding members of the world-first Indigenous Peoples Economic and Trade Cooperation Agreement (IPETCA),” she said. “We worked together to support the rules-based order in APEC, the WTO, and the Taiwan-US-Japan-Australia Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF), which Australia joined during my term.”
Both countries promoted gender equality by legalizing same-sex marriages and recognizing LGBTIQ+ rights, she said.
“Like Australia, Taiwan is rich in language and cultural diversity, from Austronesian Indigenous peoples who have lived in Taiwan for millennia to people from around the world who have made it their home,” she said.
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