Alberto Rubio
“Ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is in everyone’s interest,” said Ambassador Vivia Chang yesterday during the reception she offered in Madrid to commemorate Double Ten Day.
The head of Taipei’s Economic and Cultural Office in Spain argued, to explain her statement, that “half of the world’s container traffic crosses the strait and, in addition, Taiwan manufactures most of the world’s semiconductors“. Therefore, she added, “any conflict would have disastrous consequences for the world economy”.
In this respect, she noted that “the Russian invasion of Ukraine has served to make us aware that democracies must remain united and vigilant in the face of the great hegemonic powers. A democratic Taiwan is an indispensable force to ensure peace and prosperity in the region and in the world”.
Vivia Chang, in her first diplomatic reception since arriving in Spain last July, thanked the “support of friendly countries” that “is confirmed by the fact that the European Parliament has approved nearly 30 resolutions in support of Taiwan in recent years” or that, at the European Summit last June, “the 27 member states publicly acknowledged for the first time that they share a common concern regarding the situation in the Taiwan Strait”.
She also thanked the Spanish Congress for “the approval of a non-legislative proposal defending stability in the Strait“. “It is a valuable milestone in our relations”, he added.
The People’s Party MP Eloy Suárez, co-president of the Formosa Spain Club and president of the Association of Parliamentary Friends of Taiwan-Spain, then intervened to stress that “the support that many Spanish parliamentarians will continue to show for Taiwan’s participation in international organisations, including the UN itself, is just, necessary and essential”.
Suárez described Taiwan as “a beacon of democracy in a particularly complicated territory, which is an example for the whole of Asia” and affirmed that “Spain and Taiwan are friends and we are going to work to continue improving this relationship”.
The ambassador summed up this relationship in the increase in bilateral trade exchanges to 2,600 million dollars, “which still has room for improvement, so we are working to increase Spanish exports of pork, olive oil and wine”, while Taiwan “offers to cooperate in information technology, cybersecurity, biotechnology and green energy, where we are confident of Spain’s outstanding contribution”.
Finally, she expressed happiness for the growing cultural and educational exchanges between the two countries and tourism exchanges, “which this year have recovered the pre-pandemic figures”.
