• By Lu Yi-hsuan
  and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson expressed concern over the security situation in the Taiwan Strait at the Stockholm China Forum on Tuesday.

Kristersson said that rising tensions across the Taiwan Strait would not only affect the security of Taiwanese and Swedish partners in the region, but would also affect Europe.

Any crisis triggered by an attempt to change the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait by force would have far-reaching consequences, he said.

Photo: REUTERS

“The EU’s ‘one China’ policy remains unchanged, but we continue to be impressed by the democratic as well as economic development of Taiwan, and we remain keen to further develop our relations,” he said.

Kristersson in October last year raised concerns about peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and about China’s threats and intimidation through military action, when he issued his first government policy report after taking office.

Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Tobias Billstrom said he was willing to cooperate with Taiwan, expressing concern about China’s behavior toward Taiwan, in a foreign policy report to the Swedish parliament in February.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked Kristersson for his support, and expressed the desire to strengthen bilateral ties.

Taiwan and Sweden share universal values such as democracy, freedom, the rule of law and the protection of human rights, and they share concerns over the influence of authoritarian countries infiltrating democratic societies through the use of military threats, disinformation campaigns and cognitive warfare, it said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would continue to promote exchanges and cooperation with Sweden and other like-minded countries, to safeguard the rules-based international order, it said.

The Stockholm China Forum “brings together senior European and American representatives from government, the media, business and academia on a biannual basis … [to discuss] economic, foreign policy and security issues,” the German Marshall Fund Web site says.