European countries should strengthen relations with Taiwan if they want continued Taiwanese investment in semiconductor production, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said during a visit to Europe last week.
Overseas investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, need government approval, including for a potential factory in Germany.
Wu said the government was not placing conditions on investments by TSMC and it was for the company to decide if a project would make a profit.
Wu said Taiwan would not block investment in Europe, but there was a “philosophical issue” that a country wanting Taiwanese help needed to consider a broader picture of relations with Taiwan.
“I think that is something for us to think about,” he said. “Even though we are not selfish in stopping TSMC making investment in other countries, we certainly hope that other countries who want to attract TSMC... can also think about the situation Taiwan is in.”
China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.
“If they can think along that positive line, the relations between Taiwan and European countries, major European countries, are going to be so much better than before,” said Wu.
The minister asked not to disclose the country he was in, due to the sensitivity of his trip. Taiwan has no formal diplomatic ties with any European country except the Vatican and China warned Europe against official ties ahead of Wu’s visit.
Wu did visit the Czech Republic and, according to sources, also traveled to Brussels, where EU and NATO headquarters are located.
Wu said EU leaders were clearer than before in calling for peace in the Taiwan Strait, the stretch of water between China and Taiwan, and preservation of the status quo and said the bloc should consider more cooperation with Taiwan, such as a bilateral investment agreement (BIA).
The EU included Taiwan on its list of potential BIA partners in 2015, but it has not held talks with Taiwan on the issue since.
“It’s very challenging,” said Wu, adding he was concerned it was being held hostage due to a frozen EU-China investment deal.
“We hope we can go ahead with it and we hope we can persuade the EU leadership to think about this in a positive way.”
Taiwan seeks closer EU ties in return for chip investment — minister
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Taiwan seeks closer EU ties in return for chip investment — minister
- Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future
Zelensky says Russia using Belarus territory to circumvent Ukrainian defenses
- While President Lukashenko has vowed to commit no troops to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory to launch its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Russia was using ordinary apartment blocks on the territory of its ally Belarus to attack Ukrainian targets and circumvent Kyiv’s defenses.
The Kremlin used Belarusian territory to launch its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and Belarus remains a steadfast ally, though longstanding President Alexander Lukashenko has vowed to commit no troops to the conflict.
“We note that the Russians are trying to bypass our defensive interceptor positions through the territory of neighboring Belarus. This is risky for Belarus,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram after a military staff meeting.
“It is unfortunate that Belarus is surrendering its sovereignty in favor of Russia’s aggressive ambitions.”
Zelensky said Ukrainian intelligence had observed that Belarus was deploying equipment to carry out its attacks “in Belarusian settlements near the border, including on residential buildings.
“Antennae and other equipment are located on the roofs of ordinary five-story apartment buildings, which help guide ‘Shaheds’ (Russian drones) to targets in our western regions. This is an absolute disregard for human lives, and it is important that Minsk stops playing with this.”
The Russian and Belarusian defense ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Zelensky said the staff meeting also discussed ways of financing interceptor drones, which officials in Kyiv see as the best economically viable means of tackling Russian drone attacks, which have grown in intensity in recent months.
The president said the Ukrainian military’s general staff had been charged with working out changes to strategy in fending off air attacks “to defend infrastructure and frontline positions.”
Lukashenko this month said Russia’s Oreshnik ballistic missile system, described by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin as impossible to intercept, had been deployed to Belarus and entered active combat duty.
An assessment by two US researchers, reported by Reuters on Friday, said Moscow was likely stationing the nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik at a former air base in eastern Belarus, a development that could bolster Russia’s ability to deliver missiles across Europe.
