Demining operation. French policy vis-à-vis Taiwan “has not changed”, wanted to reassure the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure on Saturday in front of hundreds of representatives of Taiwanese companies gathered in Paris, a few days following controversial remarks by Emmanuel Macron. “I would like to start by telling you that I was with our President Emmanuel Macron in Amsterdam a few days ago and he made it very clear, both privately and publicly: our policy towards Taiwan is not has not changed, France has supported peace and stability from the beginning and opposes any change to the status quo,” the minister said.
Roland Lescure was speaking at the biannual conference of the Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in the world (WTCC), meeting in a Parisian hotel. “Taiwan shares our democratic values and this is important, it is a solid basis for relations between our societies”, he said, saying France is “very attached” to exchanges with Taiwan and to their “dynamic cooperation in the fields of culture, education and science”.
France does not want to be the “vassal” of the United States
The Chinese nationalist island and France have “very good trade relations”, bilateral trade amounting to 8.1 billion euros, he recalled, calling on the Taiwanese to invest in France. On his return from a trip to China, the French president had aroused a wave of misunderstanding in the United States and Europe by calling on the European Union not to follow Washington or Beijing on the question of Taiwan.
Such remarks might lead Beijing to think that France would not intervene in the event of a Chinese military operation once morest Taiwan, according to experts. Emmanuel Macron had assumed his remarks during a visit to the Netherlands, explaining that being “ally” of the United States did not necessarily mean being “vassal”.
(with AFP)
