Germany rules out sending military aid to Taiwan

GERMANY will not arm Taiwan like it has Ukraine, a senior German parliamentarian said yesterday.

“The situation here is a different one. Our role is less military here. It’s an economic question,” Marie-agnes Strackzimmermann, a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats (FDP), said at a press conference in Taipei.

Ms Strack-zimmermann was visiting the island as part of a party delegation meant to show solidarity with Taiwan in the face of increasingly bellicose rhetoric from Beijing.

In her role as the head of Germany’s parliamentary defence committee, Ms Strack-zimmermann has been one of the most strident advocates of tank deliveries to Ukraine.

However, she categorically ruled out the idea that Germany would follow a similar strategy of arming Taiwan, which China sees as a rightful part of its own territory.

“There’s no question to send weapons to Taiwan. That is not the question.

“We talked a lot here with people, with the politics, and the question is not ‘please Germany send us weapons’,” she added, speaking in English. “It’s not a question of military equipment. I think there are different partners here.”

Johannes Vogel, the FDP’S deputy chairman, said at the same news conference that there was a “moral obligation” to avoid military aggression in the Taiwan Strait.

“And then one has to think what can you bring on the table, and we think the economic dimension of avoiding a horrible scenario is something we can effectively bring on the table,” he said.

Both politicians met Tsai Ing-wen ,the Taiwanese president on Tuesday in a trip that has been roundly condemned by Beijing.

Germany has a long-held policy of restraint when it comes to weapons deliveries to countries in conflict zones. Left-wing critics have previously pointed out that this hasn’t stopped Berlin from green-lighting weapons deals with dictatorships such as those in Algeria and Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, critics on the Right have complained that it has taken far too long to give Kyiv the weapons it needs as it seeks to repel the Russian attack on its territory.

Before the invasion began Germany was only prepared to provide non-lethal equipment such as helmets to the Ukrainian military.

Last week, after months of hesitation, Olaf Scholz agreed to send up to 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles.