LONDON (Reuters) – The West must learn from its mistakes in failing to deter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and apply those lessons to Taiwan to “protect peace and stability in the Taiwan strait”, British foreign minister Liz Truss said on Thursday.
Tensions between Taiwan and China, which claims the democratically-ruled island as its own territory, have risen in recent years as China steps up military activities near Taiwan to pressure it to accept Chinese rule.
Truss said the West, and in particular countries in the Indo-Pacific region, had to make sure Taiwan was defended.
“What I’m saying is that we need to learn the lessons of Ukraine, which was that we could have ensured that Ukraine had the defensive capability earlier,” Truss told LBC radio.
“And that would have done more to deter (Russian President Vladimir) Putin from invading, so called deterrence by denial, and that is a similar approach to the approach we need to take for other sovereign nations, including Taiwan.”
At a NATO meeting in Spain on Wednesday, Truss told a panel session that China was “extending its influence through economic coercion and building a capable military” and that “there is a real risk that they draw the wrong idea which results in a catastrophic miscalculation such as invading Taiwan”.
On Thursday, she avoided questions about whether she was suggesting that Britain should arm Taiwan, saying only: “We also need to make sure that together, the free world are ensuring that Taiwan has the defence capability it needs.”
She also said Britain should continue to build trade ties with China but avoid becoming strategically dependent on it.
“Of course, we should continue to trade with China. But we need to be careful not to become strategically dependent on China.”
Britain and at least six other nations have been helping Taiwan in a secretive programme to build submarines, a Reuters investigation found last year.
(Reporting by Muvija M; writing by Kate Holton and Elizabeth Piper; editing by James Davey)
