Taiwan’s Tsai calls on Europe to welcome trade to promote democracy International Trade

President Tsai Ing-wen has told French lawmakers that “democratic partners” must work together to achieve peace and stability.

Taiwan is expected to move forward with negotiations in the European Union next year, when France will take over the presidency of the bloc, and democracies must work together in the face of authoritarianism, President Tsai Ing-wen has told French lawmakers.

Speaking to a group of French parliamentarians visiting his office in Taipei, Tsai said on Thursday that France would take over the rotating EU presidency next year.

“We hope that the EU, under French leadership, will continue to push Taiwan and the EU to negotiate a bilateral investment agreement or EIA to open a new partnership between Taiwan and the EU,” he said.

Taiwan has sought to increase its ties with other Western democracies in order to cope with the rise China’s military and diplomatic pressure to accept claims of Chinese sovereignty over the island.

The EU added Taiwan to its list of trading partners in 2015, a potential deal for a bilateral investment deal, a year before Tsai was president of Taiwan, but has not had a discussion with Taipei since.

The EU pledged to seek a trade deal with Taiwan in September as part of its formal strategy to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific and counter China’s rising power.

Tsai, meeting with the group led by François de Rugy, head of the France-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group, did not directly mention China, but called on democracies to continue working together.

“In the face of the rapidly changing international situation and the continuing spread of authoritarianism, democratic partners should even unite in cooperation,” he said.

“Taiwan will fulfill its international responsibilities and hopes to work with partners in France and the EU with similar ideals to make further contributions to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.”

The trip to France is part of an increasingly heated discussion between China and Lithuania, an EU member state, about the decision of the Baltic state to open a de facto Taiwanese embassy there.

Lithuania’s diplomatic delegation in China left the country on Wednesday in a hastily scheduled outing to intensify relations.