TAIPEI (Reuters) -A senior Australian opposition party lawmaker broached the sensitive subject of security cooperation with Taiwan during a meeting on Monday with President Tsai Ing-wen, saying both sides have a vested interest in maintaining regional stability.
Australia, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with China-claimed Taiwan, but has watched with growing concern, as have other major U.S. allies, Beijing using military pressure to assert its sovereignty claims over the democratically-governed island.
Meeting Tsai in the presidential office in Taipei, Andrew Wallace, deputy chair of Australia’s Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, said that in an ever-changing geopolitical landscape, security cooperation was “paramount”.
“Taiwan and Australia both recognise the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Our partnership, our strategic partnership, contributes significantly to regional security,” he said.
Taiwan and Australia have a vested interest in a rules-based, open and inclusive Indo Pacific and stand against any threats to regional stability, Wallace added.
“In defence cooperation, our defence forces engage in joint exercises, intelligence sharing and capacity building programmes. In fact, Australia, along with the United States, Japan and the Philippines are conducting naval exercises as we speak in the South China Sea.”
Taiwan and Australia are collaborating on cyber security initiatives safeguarding critical infrastructure and important digital networks, he said, without giving details.
“Australia values its deep and productive unofficial relationship with Taiwan, which includes exchanges on trade and investment, people to people ties and regional security,” a spokeswoman for Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
Last week, the U.S. State Department’s No. 2 diplomat suggested that the AUKUS submarine project between Australia, Britain and the U.S. could help deter any Chinese move against Taiwan.
The project, unveiled by the three countries in 2023, involves Australia acquiring nuclear-powered attack submarines as part of the allies’ efforts to push back against China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific region.
Tsai told Wallace and other visiting Australian lawmakers, from the ruling Labor party and the opposition Liberal-National coalition, that Taiwan and Australia are staunch defenders of freedom and democracy
“Faced with authoritarian expansionism, democracies today must stand together and bolster cooperation,” she said.
Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Fabian Hamacher in Taipei; additional reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
