The European Parliament on Wednesday approved three reports calling for the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
After passing without objections a resolution on EU-Taiwan trade and investment relations, the parliament approved reports on EU-US, EU-Japan and EU-China relations during a plenary session from Monday to yesterday in Strasbourg, France.
The resolution acknowledges Taiwan as an important economic and investment partner for the EU, and calls for the nation’s inclusion in multilateral and international forums.
Photo: AFP
The report on EU-China ties opposes Beijing’s constant distortion of UN Resolution 2758 by demanding that Taiwanese passport holders, including journalists, workers at non-governmental organizations and political activists be barred from accessing UN tours and events.
It also condemns China’s military provocations in the Taiwan Strait and elsewhere in the region.
The EU and the US agreed to continue to boost cooperation against authoritarianism and economic coercion around the world, as well as maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, the report on EU-US ties says.
The EU is to bolster security and economic cooperation with the US and other like-minded partners in the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan, to maintain regional stability and prosperity, and ensure freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait and the South China and East China seas, it says.
The efforts are also to “counter challenges that affect our shared values, interests, security and prosperity, in particular, any unilateral attempt to alter the status quo between the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan,” it says.
China’s military provocations are meant to threaten Taiwan and beyond, including the Indo-Pacific region and the established global order, it says.
In the report on EU-Japan relations, the European Parliament acknowledges Taiwan as “an important partner and a precious friend,” and reaffirms that cross-strait peace and stability “is an indispensable element of security and prosperity for the international community.”
Any change of the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait “must only take place by peaceful means and with mutual consent,” it says.
In Taipei yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked the European Parliament for approving the reports and encouraged the EU to bolster ties with Taiwan.
The European Parliament demonstrated its concern for the situation in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region as well as its solid commitment to Taiwan, the ministry said.
In other news, Taiwan and the US on Wednesday held a working group on expanding Taipei’s meaningful participation in international organizations.
The meeting, which was held in Washington by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US, was attended by representatives of the US Department of State and the ministry, the AIT said in a press release.
The discussion focused on near-term opportunities to support Taiwan’s expanded participation in the World Health Assembly and other global public health bodies, the International Civil Aviation Organization, as well as Taiwan’s meaningful participation in non-UN international organizations, it said.
US participants highlighted the “world-class expertise” Taiwan contributes to health, food security, aviation green fuels and women’s empowerment, calling on like-minded partners to work closely to prevent the exclusion of Taiwan from the international community, it said.
The two sides are to continue to bolster ties among international partners and promote Taiwan’s participation in international organizations using creative means, the ministry said.
Taiwan thanked the US for its long-term assistance in helping solicit and expand the international community’s support for Taiwan’s international participation, it said.
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
RSS