While attending a regular hearing of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee on November 5, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot stated in response to a question that France strongly opposed any unilateral attempt to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait by force or coercion. He also commended close cooperation between Taiwan and France in key areas including energy, batteries, AI, and semiconductors, saying that such collaboration was in line with France’s policies on promoting reindustrialization, competitiveness, and national self-sufficiency.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung welcomes these statements and thanks France for its firm support of maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait through peaceful means and for publicly stressing at numerous domestic and international occasions the importance of cross-strait peace and stability to global security and prosperity. Taiwan and France share the universal values of democracy, freedom, and human rights. Exchanges between the two countries in such areas as economics, trade, technology, energy transition, education, and culture have borne much fruit in recent years.

Moving forward, MOFA will continue to work closely with France and other like-minded European countries to jointly strengthen democratic resilience and advance peace, stability, and prosperity throughout the Indo-Pacific region and across the globe. (E)