Several high-level Taiwanese officials have visited Europe in recent months, as Taiwan seeks to strengthen ties with the region. Why? TaiwanPlus speaks to Marcin Jerzewski of the European Values Center.
00:00Several high-level Taiwanese officials, including its vice president and foreign minister, have made trips to Europe over the last several months. What's Taiwan's goal here?
00:09Europe definitely constitutes an important part of the strategy of diversification in Taiwan's quasi-diplomatic, economic, social and cultural relations.
00:19Already in 2016, when we witnessed the transfer of power from the KMT's Mainjou to the DPP's Tsai Ing-wen, the passing of such foreign policy strategies as the new Sao Ban policy have made it clear that for Taiwan, one of the best tools of risk mitigation in the increasingly volatile geopolitical system, it was indeed diversification.
00:43And therefore, while in recent years we have seen a considerable expansion of exchanges in various fields with Taiwan's more traditional quasi-diplomatic partners, such as the United States and Japan, we are also seeing an effort, a whole-of-government effort, to connect to new potential partners, indeed in South and Southeast Asia under the new Sao Ban policy, but also to Europe.
01:06And is this desire for increased cooperation mutual?
01:09Yes, indeed. I believe that an important foundation of these exchanges is their mutual nature.
01:17So Europe recognizes that it can benefit from engaging more with Taiwan when it comes to building up its capacity to build industry in strategic technologies.
01:29So Taiwan is a natural partner for individual member states and the bloc at large, for example, in terms of building up a European supply chain for semiconductors, but also for security cooperation, given that intelligence services of European countries across the bloc are increasingly seeing China as a source of instability.
01:53The European Union has the infamous tri-element definition of its partnership with China.
02:02It's a complicated one. China is viewed as a partner, but also a competitor and systemic rival.
02:08And in recent years, we have definitely seen that even though China is not explicitly named as a threat, unlike Russia, the balance of these three elements has definitely shifted towards China being seen as a systemic rival.
02:24What challenges is Taiwan facing or may Taiwan face in the future in strengthening ties with Europe?
02:29In the international system, the European Union is a very special beast.
02:35There is no other regional organization of this sort.
02:38And the 27 member states work with one another to engage with external partners, including Taiwan, under the agus of the common foreign and security policy.
02:50Nevertheless, individual member states still have their own calculus when it comes to their national interests.
02:56And even though following the onset of the full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine in 2022, we've been able to largely see pan-European unity when it comes to engaging or disengaging from Russia and engaging the new reality that Russia is a threat, we have yet to really see a more consistent EU-27 strategy when it comes to engaging China, engaging the Indo-Pacific and then also engaging Taiwan.
03:22Some European countries run a positive trade balance with China, very few countries in the world can say the same, and therefore economic lobbying and private sector lobbying can overshadow the security and economic security considerations that we discuss.
03:37Other countries like Spain, for example, are more reluctant to embrace relations with Taiwan, given that they incorrectly see Taiwan as a secessionist region, evoking concerns about autonomous movements within their own countries.
03:54Other players, such as Cyprus, really need China's support in the United Nations Security Council, given the occupation of northern Cyprus since 1974.
04:04So this mosaic of really idiosyncratic considerations when it comes to engaging with China is also shaping diversity of approaches pursued by individual member states vis-Ã -vis Taiwan, therefore limiting the scope of activities that can be pursued under the common foreign and security.
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