Member of the European Parliament Charlie Weimers on Thursday called on the EU to invite Taiwanese leaders to visit Europe as part of its efforts to forge closer ties between the two sides.
Weimers, the rapporteur of a draft report titled “EU-Taiwan Relations and Cooperation,” said that relations on “political levels” should be promoted in response to China ramping up military threats against Taiwan.
After the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee approved the draft report on Wednesday, Weimers, who is from Sweden, said that the first-ever passage of such a report in the committee was a historic event, signaling that the EU is ready to deepen relations with Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
“I think the European Union should invite Taiwanese leaders to Europe,” Weimers said in an interview with the Central News Agency.
He supports high-level official exchanges between the EU and Taiwan, Weimers said, urging the parliament to push for political exchanges between the two sides.
The draft report was overwhelmingly approved with 60 votes in favor, four votes against and six abstentions.
The draft would now be submitted to a vote in the parliament next month.
The report called for closer relations and a stronger partnership between the two sides “guided by the EU’s one China policy.”
To step up cooperation, the report stressed the need to begin an “impact assessment, public consultation and scoping exercise” on an “EU-Taiwan Bilateral Investment Agreement.”
Weimers said that he in May received an e-mail from the Chinese embassy in Sweden, criticizing the draft report.
The e-mail repeated Beijing’s viewpoint that the involvement of Taiwan would touch upon China’s internal affairs.
“Legislators throughout Europe as well as countries are under increased pressure from China,” Weimers said. “We must learn from that. We must make value change much more independent from Chinese influences.”
The draft report also called on the bloc to change the name of the European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan to “European Union Office in Taiwan” to reflect the broad scope of bilateral ties.
“I strongly support the name change,” Weimers said.
The report not only reflects that the EU has developed close economic and trade ties with Taiwan, but that both sides have “very much in common in terms of values, in terms of how we take on the big challenges over times,” he said, citing as examples energy development and academic exchanges.
“The name change of the office in Taiwan would reflect such a broadening of the scope of relationships between the Europe and Taiwan,” Weimers said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS