A regional Belgian parliament on Saturday passed a resolution calling on Brussels to support diplomatic efforts to ease tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
The Brussels-Capital Region Parliament passed the “Motion for a resolution on Taiwan’s place in the international arena” with 70 votes in favor, zero against and 10 abstentions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news release on Saturday.
The resolution, the first passed by the parliament, calls on the regional government to encourage the Belgian Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation to support the resumption of dialogue at all levels between Taiwan and China and to support diplomatic initiatives aimed at defusing tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, the Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium said.
Photo: Reuters
The proposal urges the Belgian government to support the development of trade between Taiwan and the Brussels-Capital Region and promote partnerships with Taipei in various fields, as well as encouraging the European Commission to extend commercial and industrial cooperation with the nation and to support its democracy and freedom, the office said.
The resolution also urges Brussels to support Taiwan’s participation in international organizations such as the WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, it said.
This is the fifth resolution passed by regional and national bodies in Belgium in support of Taiwan since 2019, following ones passed by the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in July 2020, the Flemish Parliament in March 2021, the Belgian Senate in March 2021 and the Wallonia Parliament in October 2022, it said.
The ministry thanked Brussels-Capital Region Parliament for passing the resolution, adding that the overwhelming support was a demonstration that Taiwan and Belgium are like-minded partners that share the values of democracy, freedom and human rights.
The Taipei Representative Office extended its gratitude to the lawmakers who initiated the resolution and the parliament for its passage, adding that it would continue to work closely with Belgium to bolster bilateral ties.
In other news, American Institute in Taiwan Chair Laura Rosenberger on Saturday welcomed a joint statement issued a day earlier by the US and the EU to affirm “the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
The statement was released following discussions between US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino during the sixth High-Level US-EU Dialogue on China and the fifth US-EU High-Level Consultations on the Indo-Pacific on Feb. 7 and Feb. 8.
“As international recognition of Taiwan’s importance continues to grow,” Rosenberger wrote on X that she was “glad to see” the affirmation from the US and the EU.
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