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Taiwan
ChinaDiplomacy

Amid cooling ties with Beijing, EU delegations land in Taiwan to talk defence, security and supply chains

  • Germany and Lithuania send parliamentary groups to the island to meet President Tsai Ing-wen and senior officials
  • Delegation from Germany’s Free Democratic Party will visit Human Rights Museum; Vilnius group expected to discuss hybrid security threat

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The German delegation from the Free Democratic Party met Taiwan’s legislature speaker Yu Shyi-kun. The group was headed by the chair of the Bundestag defence committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, and the party’s deputy chair, Johannes Vogel. Photo: CNA
Lawrence Chungin Taipei
Parliamentary delegations from two countries arrived in Taiwan on Monday in pursuit of security and defence cooperation with the self-ruled island amid increasingly negative sentiment from European Union states towards Beijing.
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Led by the heads of their defence committees, the German and Lithuanian parliamentary groups visited the island on Monday for stays of four and six days respectively, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

They were both expected to meet President Tsai Ing-wen and other senior officials – including those from security, defence, foreign, cross-strait and digital affairs departments – during their time in Taiwan, the ministry said.

02:23

‘Common responsibility’: Taiwan’s president calls on mainland China to resume dialogue

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The German delegation from the Free Democratic Party was headed by the chair of the Bundestag defence committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, and the party’s deputy chair, Johannes Vogel, marking the first visit by a German parliamentary group this year and the third in four months, the island’s foreign ministry said.

Also included were Renata Alt, head of the Bundestag committee on human rights and humanitarian aid, and Ulrich Lechte, a spokesperson for the FDP parliamentary group.

Before leaving for the island, Strack-Zimmermann was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying the visit was a show of “solidarity” with Taiwan at a time when Taipei was under increasing military pressure from Beijing.
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The group will visit the island’s Human Rights Museum and will exchange views with local think tank experts on cybersecurity and persistent military threats from Beijing, as well as other issues of mutual concern, a legislative source said on Monday.

According to the source, the delegates were also expected to visit Hsinchu Science Park, where the world’s largest contract chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co is headquartered, to understand supply chain conditions in Taiwan.
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