TAIPEI, Taiwan—The Taiwanese government on Monday thanked Group of Seven (G-7) leaders for calling for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
“We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo and increase tensions,” they added.
“Taiwan is dedicated to maintaining a free & open Indo-Pacific, & will continue to work with our global partners to ensure regional security,” Tsai added.
“We welcome multilateral efforts for peace. Taiwan is ready to cooperate with the G-7 and beyond,” Lai wrote.
According to Taiwan’s presidential office spokesperson Xavier Chang, it was the first time that a G-7 statement had stressed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The governmental group—which has Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States as members—was founded in 1975.
China and Taiwan are separated by the Taiwan Strait, which is about 80 miles wide at its narrowest point.
The relationship between Beijing and Taipei has been rocky, mainly because the Chinese regime sees the self-ruled island as part of its territory. As a result, the communist regime has tried to isolate Taiwan from the international community and prevents the island from taking part in international organizations including the World Health Organization.
Taiwan is a de facto independent nation with its own democratically-elected government, military, constitution, and currency. Washington currently has no official diplomatic ties with Taipei.
In response to the G-7 statement, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the UK said that other countries should stop “interfering with China’s internal affairs” with regard to Taiwan.
Lo Chih-cheng, a lawmaker for Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said on Monday that China has been the source of instability in the region and a challenger to regional peace, when asked by local media about the G-7 statement, according to Taiwan’s government-run Central News Agency.
Lo called on the international community to take concrete actions to ensure peace across the Taiwan Strait, such as sending their military fleets to waters in the western Pacific Ocean.