The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday called for enhanced security cooperation with the UK, following an Indo-Pacific defense report by the British parliament expressing urgent concern over potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
British lawmakers agree with the government’s assessment that China under the communist party’s rule constitutes “an epoch-defining and systematic challenge” to British interests, the UK House of Commons Defence Committee said in the report, titled UK Defence and the Indo-Pacific.
“With conflict over Taiwan potentially only years away, the Government and the UK Armed Forces must ensure that they have plans for the UK’s response,” it said, adding that London’s current regional military presence is “limited” and its strategy “unclear.”
Photo: AP / UK Parliament
“Possible conflict between China and Taiwan in the coming years is the most pressing and urgent concern for many Western governments” within the Indo-Pacific region, it said.
The UK and its armed forces “must ensure that they have plans for the UK’s response — co-ordinated with allies and partners — to a range of actions” by Beijing against Taiwan, it said.
The UK government is urged to pursue closer ties with the US and France to establish via basing arrangements “a larger permanent presence” that would enable Britain to “make a substantial contribution to allied efforts in the event of conflict in the region,” the committee said.
The ministry said that the report shows Britain’s continued commitment to the “Indo-Pacific Tilt” announced in 2021 and the serious regard with which it holds the threat Beijing poses to the region.
The inclusion of Taiwan in the report marks a deepening recognition by the UK of the nation’s importance to the Indo-Pacific and the significance of the region as a whole to the West, it said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu’s (吳釗燮) comments in an interview with the Guardian in April that China might invade Taiwan in 2027 was cited by the British lawmakers, the ministry said.
The UK defense committee voiced concern over Beijing’s potential use of hybrid warfare and an economic blockade against Taiwan, which produces 92 percent of the world’s advanced chips, while 48 percent of container ship traffic passes through the Taiwan Strait, it said.
The ministry is heartened by the British government’s “Integrated Review Refresh” policy paper in March and the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee’s Tilting Horizons: the Integrated Review and the Indo-Pacific Report Summary in August, which highlighted UK support for peace and stability in the Strait, it said.
Taiwan has redoubled its efforts to deepen its cooperation with the UK and other like-minded partners to maintain economic security, democratic resilience and an international order that facilitates peace and prosperity, the ministry said.
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