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Visit to show support for Taiwan, for maintaining status quo: French lawmaker

ROC Central News Agency

04/17/2023 12:10 PM

Taoyuan, April 17 (CNA) Their visit is meant to show support toward Taiwan and to reiterate that France's stance favoring maintaining the Taiwan Strait status quo has not changed, French lawmaker Eric Bothorel told reporters at the Taoyuan International Airport Monday.

The chair of the France-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group, leading a four-member delegation from the French National Assembly, arrived in Taiwan Monday for a four-day visit. He told the awaiting press at the airport that they were here to discuss future cooperation between the two countries and much more.

"This is what we want to show again. Now it is more important than ever for us to be here [because], we stand with you, we are close to you, we will be friends for a very long time," he said.

He reiterated that Paris' support toward maintaining cross-Taiwan Strait status quo has not changed when asked to comment on French President Emmanuel Macron's recent remarks in which he said Europe must avoid being drawn into any conflict between the United States and China over Taiwan.

Bothorel said France's support for maintaining the status quo remains the same because "if something happens to Taiwan, that will change the world."

Another member of the French delegation, Constance Le Grip, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time, told reporters that the delegates are here to show deep friendship between Taiwan and France.

The other two members of the French parliamentarian group are Mireille Clapot and Michel Herbillon.

Their visit to Taiwan, which will last until Thursday, was planned long before Macron made his comments.

Speaking after concluding a three-day state visit to China on April 8, Macron warned Europe should not become a follower on the Taiwan Strait issue and be forced to adapt to the American pace and Chinese overreaction.

That brought criticism from some politicians and commentators in Europe and the U.S., with former U.S. President Donald Trump accusing him of "kissing ass" to Beijing.

Bruno Le Maire, Macron's finance minister and a member of the French parliament, however, defended him, saying that France need not be against China even as it is allied with the U.S.

He also said that what France wanted to do was reduce tensions in the Taiwan Strait and it, along with the European Union, could help prevent a war by playing the role of a "balancing power."

Macron later insisted that the French and European position on Taiwan has always remained the same.

"We're in favor of the status quo. This policy is constant and hasn't changed," he said last week when asked to clarify his comments that prompted a backlash.

(By Joseph Yeh)

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