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TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday called for an alliance of democracies to defend against “aggressive actions” and protect freedom, alluding to Chinese actions in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. as great threats to regional stability.
China, which claims democracy in Taiwan as its own, has stepped up its military activities on the island, as well as in the disputed East and South China Seas.
Speaking in Taipei at a forum attended by senior Taiwanese security officials and senior Western diplomats, Tsai said Taiwan was at the forefront in defending democracy from “authoritarian aggression.”
While Taiwan is committed to boosting its defensive capabilities, maintaining regional peace and security requires collaborative efforts, he added.
“The rapid militarization of the South China Sea, the increasing and frequent gray zone tactics in the Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea, the coercive diplomacy used against countries and corporations … are destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region. Pacific, “Tsai said, without directly naming China.
“It is time for like-minded countries and democratic friends in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, to discuss a framework for generating sustained and concerted efforts to maintain a strategic order that discourages aggressive unilateral actions.”
He called for a strategy that would avoid war, but conveyed the determination to protect democracies by encouraging cooperation, transparency, and problem solving through dialogue.
China has increased pressure on Taiwan to accept its sovereignty over the island, which has responded by seeking closer ties with what it calls “kindred” democracies.
It is primarily the United States, but also includes Australia, Great Britain, Canada, the European Union, and Japan, none of which have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Aside from the United States, Taiwan’s main arms supplier, the other nations generally only offer occasional moral support, such as asking the World Health Organization to grant non-member Taiwan adequate access.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
