September 6, 2022
No. 236
Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom Liz Truss won the Conservative Party leadership election on September 5 and has been appointed by Queen Elizabeth II to serve as Prime Minister and form a new cabinet. After the Conservative Party smoothly completed the election of its leader through an internal democratic process, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan) promptly instructed the Taipei Representative Office in the United Kingdom to convey a message welcoming this news and offering sincere congratulations from the people and government of Taiwan to the people and government of the United Kingdom, and to forward a congratulatory letter from President Tsai Ing-wen. Taiwan looks forward to engaging in close cooperation with the new UK government led by Prime Minister Truss and further deepening the friendly relations between the countries across all domains.
Prime Minister Truss has on multiple occasions publicly stated the importance of ensuring peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. In 2021, she launched an initiative to build a network of liberty, calling on like-minded countries to forge economic, technology, and security and defense partnerships to jointly stand up for democracy, freedom, and the rules-based international order. In April this year, during her tenure as Foreign Secretary, she delivered a foreign policy speech on the return of geopolitics. The address had important global strategic implications. She explicitly called on NATO allies to ensure that democracies like Taiwan are able to defend themselves and she pointedly declared that China must abide by international rules. Last month, China used the visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a pretext to hold sea and air exercises around Taiwan, release a white paper on Taiwan policy, and make other provocative rhetorical and military threats. Demonstrating keen insight into the situation, Prime Minister Truss urged countries in the global democratic community to continue to ensure Taiwan’s self-defense capacity.
Taiwan and the United Kingdom share the core values of democracy, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law. Bilateral ties have advanced steadily in recent years through extensive cooperation in technology, energy transition, exchange of driving licenses, smart cities, air services, and other areas. High-level UK government officials have repeatedly stated that security across the Taiwan Strait is in the United Kingdom’s interests. On numerous public occasions, they have reiterated the importance of maintaining cross-strait peace and stability. At this critical time of dramatic changes in the international geopolitical landscape, Taiwan will continue to work hand in hand with the United Kingdom and other like-minded countries to strengthen democratic resilience and solidarity and jointly counter authoritarian expansion and coercion. Taiwan has full confidence that under Prime Minister Truss’s leadership, Taiwan and the United Kingdom will enter into in-depth discussions and exchanges across a broad spectrum of fields, raising substantive and cordial bilateral cooperation to new heights. (E)