‘You are not alone’

The European Parliament's first official delegation to Taiwan yesterday said the diplomatically isolated island is not alone and called for bolder actions to strengthen EU-Taiwan ties as Taipei faces rising pressure from Beijing.

Taiwan, which does not have formal diplomatic ties with any European nations except tiny Vatican City, is keen to deepen relations with members of the European Union.

The visit comes at a time when China has ramped up military pressure, including repeated missions by Chinese warplanes near democratic Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own and has not ruled out taking by force.

"We came here with a very simple, very clear message: You are not alone. Europe is standing with you," Raphael Glucksmann, a French member of the European Parliament, told Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in a meeting broadcast live on Facebook.

"Our visit should be considered as an important first step," said Glucksmann, who is leading the delegation. "But next we need a very concrete agenda of high-level meetings and high-level concrete steps together to build a much stronger EU-Taiwan partnership."

The three-day visit, organised by a committee of the European Parliament on foreign interference in democratic processes, will include exchanges with Taiwanese officials on threats such as disinformation and cyber attacks. Last month, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution to deepen ties with Taiwan.

In another development, the United States said China is expanding its nuclear arsenal much more quickly than anticipated, but Beijing yesterday slammed the Pentagon report as overhyping the threat.

The People's Republic of China (PRC) could have 700 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2027, and could top 1,000 by 2030 -- an arsenal two-and-a-half times the size of what the Pentagon predicted only a year ago, according to the Pentagon report published Wednesday.

Like the US and Russia, the two leading nuclear powers, China is building a "nuclear triad," with capabilities to deliver nuclear weapons from land-based ballistic missiles, from missiles launched from the air, and from submarines, it said.