IPAC Summit Names Taiwan Strait Peace and Economic Resilience Top Global Priorities

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) has designated peace in the Taiwan Strait and resilience against China’s economic coercion as its leading priorities for the year ahead. The two priorities were selected following a vote at the annual summit in The Hague, which brought together 52 lawmakers from 30 countries across six continents.

The first initiative aims to rally international efforts to draw attention to the strait’s significance for global security, the rule of law and economic stability. The second urges a whole-of-society strategy for strengthening resilience, including pushing forward parliamentary resolutions and encouraging government ministers and diplomats to weave resilience into diplomatic and economic dealings with China.

Summit Highlights Global Concerns

Throughout the debate, legislators from Australia, Japan, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Panama, among other nations, said that countries throughout the Indo-Pacific recognized how vital peace and stability in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait are. Yet, they added, numerous global leaders have still not fully grasped how events in the region carry fundamental consequences for economies and security everywhere.

From Europe to the Indo-Pacific, peace across the Taiwan Strait is vital to global security. Three former Defence Ministers examine what effective deterrence must look like today. 🇳🇱 Ruben Brekelmans MP 🇯🇵 Rep. Gen Nakatani 🇱🇹 Dovilė Šakalienė MP… pic.twitter.com/SuElWCvsUD

— https://x.com/ipacglobal/status/2118387933849751762

IPAC Netherlands co-chair Jan Paternotte said that, given the volume of international trade passing through the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan’s pivotal role in the semiconductor industry, an economic crisis triggered by escalating tensions could have an even greater global impact than the COVID-19 pandemic.

He went on to say that preserving the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait ought to be among the international community’s foremost priorities.

A Call for Bridging Gaps

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Ngalim Tiunn, who represented Taiwan’s legislature at the summit, stated that parliamentarians from IPAC member nations were aware of how crucial peace in the Taiwan Strait is to the global economy, whereas government officials did not necessarily hold the same view. Efforts are needed to bridge the gap between legislators and executive authorities, she added.

Photo: news.ltn.com.tw

At a post-summit press conference, Dutch lawmaker Tom van der Lee said the proposals went beyond the concerns of any single country, describing them as global issues that required international cooperation to address.

Addressing Regional Tensions

When asked by reporters how the international community should show backing for the Philippines while China keeps raising tensions in the region, Paternotte said the Philippines had declined to accept violations of its territory, standing firm time and again to protect its rights and making sure its voice is heard. Such conduct merited recognition, and the international community ought to emulate it by standing up for international law, he said.

Van der Lee said that under Dutch policy, the Netherlands dispatches warships through the Taiwan Strait and other waters once every two years as a show of its dedication to freedom of navigation, adding that The Hague, as an important center for international law, would keep backing the Philippines in protecting its rights and advancing peace.

Questioned about the conditions under which Japan would dispatch troops to help Taiwan should China invade, former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani said Japan was collaborating with other nations to avert such an outcome. Still, should Taiwan be invaded and Japan’s security face a grave threat, Japan could offer assistance or work alongside other countries under the terms of its laws. The extent of any involvement would depend on the circumstances of each case, he added.