TAIPEI: Germany’s education minister said on Tuesday she was honored to visit “esteemed partner” Taiwan but that her trip was not connected to her government’s China strategy, as Beijing said it had protested to Berlin about her “vile conduct” in going there.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has increased military, political and economic pressure to assert those claims. The politically sensitive visit is taking place as Berlin is reviews its previously close ties with China.
A visit to Taiwan in January by a delegation of high-ranking lawmakers from the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), the smallest party in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-way coalition, led to protests from Beijing.
Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger, also of the FDP, said at the signing of a technology cooperation agreement with Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Tsung-tsong that it was “extremely important to my ministry and me to promote cooperation with like-minded partners.”
“This arrangement stands for enhancing cooperation on the basis of the democratic values transparency, openness, reciprocity and scientific freedom, to only name a few,” she said.
“It is a great pleasure and honor for me to be the first minister heading a specialist government department to visit Taiwan in 26 years,” she added. “Taiwan, with its excellent research institutions, is a highly esteemed partner.”
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said they had filed a strong protest with Germany about her “vile conduct.”
Germany should “immediately stop associating and interacting with Taiwan independence separatist forces, immediately stop sending wrong signals to Taiwan independence separatist forces, and immediately stop using the Taiwan issue to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” Wang told a daily news briefing.
Germany, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, though it does maintain a de facto embassy in Taipei.
Given the sensitivity of the trip, Stark-Watzinger is not scheduled to meet Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.
In a departure from the policies of Germany’s former chancellor, Angela Merkel, Olaf Scholz’s government is developing a new China strategy to reduce dependence on Asia’s economic superpower, hitherto a vital export market for German goods.
Responding to a question from a reporter, Stark-Watzinger said: “The federal government’s China strategy remains unchanged. To that extent, this visit today is not connected with that.”
German minister praises ‘esteemed’ Taiwan, China protests ‘vile’ visit
https://arab.news/6jzqw
German minister praises ‘esteemed’ Taiwan, China protests ‘vile’ visit
- But education minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger says her trip was not connected to her government’s China strategy
- Germany has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, though it does maintain a de facto embassy in Taipei
Bangladesh says at least 287 killed during Hasina-era abductions
DHAKA: A Bangladesh commission investigating disappearances during the rule of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina said Monday at least 287 people were assumed to have been killed.
The commission said some corpses were believed to have been dumped in rivers, including the Buriganga in the capital, Dhaka, or buried in mass graves.
The government-appointed commission, formed after Hasina was toppled by a mass uprising in August 2024, said it had investigated 1,569 cases of abductions, with 287 of the victims presumed dead.
“We have identified a number of unmarked graves in several places where the bodies were presumably buried,” Nur Khan Liton, a commission member, told AFP.
“The commission has recommended that Bangladesh seek cooperation from forensic experts to identify the bodies and collect and preserve DNA samples from family members.”
In its final report, submitted to the government on Sunday, the commission said that security forces had acted under the command of Hasina and her top officials.
The report said many of those abducted had belonged to the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, or the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), both in opposition to Hasina.
In a separate investigation, police in December began exhuming a mass grave in Dhaka.
The grave included at least eight victims of the uprising against Hasina, bodies all found with bullet wounds, according to Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Md Sibgat Ullah.
The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power.
She was sentenced to death in absentia in November for crimes against humanity.
“We are grateful for finally being able to know where our brother is buried,” said Mohamed Nabil, whose 28-year-old sibling Sohel Rana was identified as one of the dead in the grave in Dhaka.
“But we demand a swift trial for the police officials who shot at the people during the uprising.”
