FREEDOM OF TRANSIT:
A German MP visiting Taiwan also stressed the importance of stability in the Taiwan Strait to ensure regional peace

By Chen Yun and Sam Garcia / Staff reporter, with staff writer

National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) met with 10 members of the Dutch House of Representatives’ Foreign Trade and Development Committee in Taipei on Tuesday, the council said yesterday.

The cross-party delegation was the largest of its kind to date, Wu said.

They discussed issues related to international order, regional security and the growing friendship between Taiwan and the Netherlands, the council said.

Photo courtesy of the National Security Council

The Netherlands in May sent naval vessels through the Taiwan Strait for the first time, defending regional freedom of navigation, Wu said.

Over the past few years, the Dutch House of Representatives has been passing policies to support Taiwan, and promote peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, including opposing China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758, he added.

“This shows a growing consensus in the Netherlands on Taiwan-related issues and I hope the Dutch House of Representatives would continue to support Taiwan,” he said.

China’s authoritarian influence is spreading, threatening stability not just in the Taiwan Strait, but in the East and South China seas, and even reaching areas in the Pacific and Indian oceans and Africa, Wu said.

“As authoritarian countries China, Russia, Iran and North Korea strengthen their cooperation and disrupt international order, democratic countries must stand more united,” he said.

Delegation leader and Foreign Trade and Development Committee Chair Aukje de Vries said that while members of the delegation have long followed Taiwan-related issues, many are visiting Taiwan for the first time and are excited to personally witness the free, open and diverse society in Taiwan, the council said.

“The Netherlands is interested in Taiwan’s efforts to enhance whole-of-society defense resilience and looks forward to collaborating with Taiwan to strengthen ties at all levels,” it cited her as saying.

The delegation included Foreign Trade and Development Committee Vice Chair Roelien Kamminga, Defense Committee Chair Isa Kahraman, Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China co-chair Jan Paternotte and Member of Parliament Tom van der Lee, the council said.

NSC deputy secretaries-general Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) and Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) also attended the meeting.

Separately, Christoph Hoffman, chair of the German parliament’s Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development, yesterday met with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) at the ministry on Tuesday morning.

“Germany is Taiwan’s biggest trade partner in Europe, with close economic exchanges on both sides, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co building a factory in Dresden,” the ministry cited Francois Wu as saying at the meeting.

Facing authoritarian expansion, Germany and other European countries have sent naval vessels through the Taiwan Strait to defend regional freedom of navigation, showing that stability in the Taiwan Strait is a priority for like-minded nations, the deputy minister said.

Hoffman expressed the importance of strengthening the democratic supply chain between Taiwan and Germany, and praised Taiwan’s small and medium-sized businesses, the ministry said.

Seeing that many developingcountries have fallen into China’s debt traps, Hoffman said that Germany and Taiwan could work together with the countries on economic development projects.

He added that he looks forward to deepening the cooperation between the two countries, the ministry said.