Top EU diplomat calls for navy patrols in Taiwan Strait

The European Union's Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell called on the block's navies to patrol the Taiwan Strait in a show of commitment, in an opinion piece published in a French weekly on Sunday.

Writing in the Journal Du Dimanche, Josep Borrell said that Europe must be "very present on this issue” and that it concerns the continent "economically, commercially and technologically."

His words echoed the comments he had made at a debate on China at the European Parliament on Tuesday.

"Taiwan is clearly part of our geostrategic perimeter to guarantee peace," Borrell said at the time. "It is not only for a moral reason that an action against Taiwan must necessarily be rejected. It is also because it would be, in economic terms, extremely serious for us, because Taiwan has a strategic role in the production of the most advanced semiconductors," he said. 

Beijing sees Taiwan as Chinese territory and has not ruled out using force to put the island under its control.

Taipei's contacts with the US prompt Chinese military drills

Borrell's push for naval patrolling comes two weeks after China launched a three-day exercise around Taiwan, simulating targeted strikes and blockade of the island.

This was in response to a meeting between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy early April when Tsai was returning to Taiwan from a tour in Central America, via the United States.

China had earlier objected to the scheduled meeting and warned the US that it would "fight back." 

But earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron argued that Europeans should not be "followers" of the US in the event of conflict with China over Taiwan. Europe "should not be caught up in a disordering of the world and crises that aren't ours," he had said after a visit to Beijing, drawing criticism from politicians in the US and Europe.

Macron then spoke to US President Joe Biden over a phone call on Thursday to reaffirm their shared geopolitical vision.

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 but Beijing still claims sovereignty and insists on the "one China" principle in international relations. Most countries, including the EU nations and the US, do not recognize Taiwan as a country officially but maintain some unofficial diplomatic relations with its government.

mk/dj (AFP, Lusa)