Germany will not arm Taiwan, senior lawmaker says
Taiwan's armed forces hold two days of routine drills to show combat readiness ahead of Lunar New Year holidays at a military base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, January 11, 2023. — Reuters pic
Wednesday, 11 Jan 2023 6:26 PM MYT
TAIPEI, Jan 11 — Germany will not provide Taiwan with weapons and has not been asked to do so, as the situation is different from Ukraine’s, a senior German lawmaker said today while on a trip to Taipei.
Democratically-ruled Taiwan, viewed by China as its own territory, has faced increased pressure from Beijing which staged war games near the island last August. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims.
Wary of angering China and prompting a trade backlash, most countries do not sell arms to Taiwan.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the head of Germany’s parliamentary defence committee and a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s junior coalition partner Free Democrats (FDP), told a news conference in Taipei that Germany had been generous in sending weapons to Ukraine.
“The situation here is a different one. Our role is less military here. It’s an economic question,” she said, speaking in English.
Pressed on whether Western countries should be helping arm Taiwan given China’s stepped up military threat, Strack-Zimmermann said Germany would not do so.
“There’s no question to send weapons to Taiwan. That is not the question. We talked a lot here with people, with the politics, and the question is not ‘please Germany send us weapons’,” she added.
“It’s not a question of military equipment. I think there are different partners here.”
Johannes Vogel, the FDP’s deputy chairman, said at the same news conference there was a “moral obligation” to avoid military aggression in the Taiwan Strait.
“And then one has to think what can you bring on the table, and we think the economic dimension of avoiding a horrible scenario is something we can effectively bring on the table.”
Both met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen yesterday. China has condemned their trip.
Taiwan’s armed forces are mostly equipped with weapons either made domestically or by the United States, though France has previously sold fighter jets and warships to Taiwan, and the Netherlands sold Taiwan two submarines in the 1980s.
Germany has traditionally had a close diplomatic and business relationship with China and, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
But Berlin has been considering a raft of measures to make business with China less attractive as it seeks to reduce its dependency on Asia’s economic superpower, a strategy paper seen by Reuters last month showed. — Reuters
Wednesday, 11 Jan 2023 6:26 PM MYT
TAIPEI, Jan 11 — Germany will not provide Taiwan with weapons and has not been asked to do so, as the situation is different from Ukraine’s, a senior German lawmaker said today while on a trip to Taipei.
Democratically-ruled Taiwan, viewed by China as its own territory, has faced increased pressure from Beijing which staged war games near the island last August. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims.
Wary of angering China and prompting a trade backlash, most countries do not sell arms to Taiwan.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the head of Germany’s parliamentary defence committee and a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s junior coalition partner Free Democrats (FDP), told a news conference in Taipei that Germany had been generous in sending weapons to Ukraine.
“The situation here is a different one. Our role is less military here. It’s an economic question,” she said, speaking in English.
Pressed on whether Western countries should be helping arm Taiwan given China’s stepped up military threat, Strack-Zimmermann said Germany would not do so.
“There’s no question to send weapons to Taiwan. That is not the question. We talked a lot here with people, with the politics, and the question is not ‘please Germany send us weapons’,” she added.
“It’s not a question of military equipment. I think there are different partners here.”
Johannes Vogel, the FDP’s deputy chairman, said at the same news conference there was a “moral obligation” to avoid military aggression in the Taiwan Strait.
“And then one has to think what can you bring on the table, and we think the economic dimension of avoiding a horrible scenario is something we can effectively bring on the table.”
Both met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen yesterday. China has condemned their trip.
Taiwan’s armed forces are mostly equipped with weapons either made domestically or by the United States, though France has previously sold fighter jets and warships to Taiwan, and the Netherlands sold Taiwan two submarines in the 1980s.
Germany has traditionally had a close diplomatic and business relationship with China and, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
But Berlin has been considering a raft of measures to make business with China less attractive as it seeks to reduce its dependency on Asia’s economic superpower, a strategy paper seen by Reuters last month showed. — Reuters
Germany is borderline a China client -state.
ReplyDeleteIf PRC invades Taiwan, Germany will likely remain neutral while trading uninterrupted with PRC , just like Turkey's and India's stance with Russia today.
China would not invade Taiwan unless that US lackey English Tsai declares independence and to do this, she has to amend the constitution. Would she dares to, especially since her DPP lost so badly in the regional election recently that she had to resign
Deletefrom heading her own party.
Germany, together with her EU members, lost their heads in this Ukraine conflict with Russia, with Merkel now admitting that they weren't sincere to implement the Minsk Agreements, a ploy to buy time ( 8 years !) to beef up Ukraine for a war with Russia ! The damage of this confession is disastrous, there's no placating Putin now.
So, at least now Germany had sort of learned a lesson, lol....with Stoltz bringing a biz delegates of the top 10 German industries to to China and cutting a deal with Xi. Better late than never. And of course, it won't commit further suicide by supplying arms to Taiwan now ! Bet you Biden might be kicking himself if he manages to wake up from his senile stupor but his blinking bunch of Neocons Blinken, Sullivan, Vic Nuland et al must be fuming big time :)