EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “Taiwan is crucial for Europe” in part due to the important shipping routes and its role producing semiconductors.
“It’s not just for moral, ethical reasons that we should reject any external interference in the affairs of Taiwan,” he said.
He insisted European fleets needed to take part in freedom of navigation operations in the straits and said the bloc should be ready to “face down provocations no matter where they come”.
“WELL-TUNED CHORUS”
Macron’s comments drew sharp criticism from several of France’s EU allies, especially nations in the east of the bloc that see the United States as their primary security guarantor in the face of China’s ally Russia.
Borrell said the bloc’s member states should try to get on the same “same wavelength” over Beijing.
“We can’t speak with just one voice because of the multiplicity of voices that we have, but at least we could be a well-tuned chorus,” he told the European Parliament.
Borrell said the bloc needed to find common ground on whether it wanted to forge its own independent voice in global affairs and how it should deal with China’s stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
European leaders have pushed Beijing to get its close ally Moscow to pull back, but there have been no concrete results from their diplomatic outreach.
“We all have our relations with China, but they can’t develop normally if China doesn’t use its influence with Russia to get it to withdraw its troops from Ukraine,” Borrell said.
“Any neutrality which doesn’t draw a distinction between the aggressor and the country aggressed is basically on the side of the aggressor,” he said.
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