BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Olaf Scholz informed the German parliament on Thursday that he had warned China throughout talks earlier this week in opposition to utilizing pressure to attain territorial adjustments, significantly in opposition to Taiwan.
Scholz hosted a big Chinese language delegation led by Premier Li Qiang within the first face-to-face summit for the reason that pandemic this week, at a time of rising geopolitical tensions between the West and China.
“We firmly reject all unilateral makes an attempt to vary the established order within the East and South China Seas by pressure or coercion. That is very true for Taiwan,” Scholz stated, in keeping with ready remarks.
“We’re additionally involved concerning the human rights state of affairs and the state of the rule of regulation in China,” he added.
China, which has by no means renounced using pressure to convey Taiwan beneath its management, has stepped up navy actions close to the democratically ruled island to pressure it to simply accept Chinese language sovereignty.
Taiwan strongly disputes Beijing’s sovereignty claims and vows to defend itself if attacked.
Chatting with lawmakers, Scholz additionally urged Turkey to pave the way in which for Sweden to turn out to be a member of the NATO alliance and stated Sweden ought to have a seat on the desk of the following NATO summit.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; writing by Matthias Williams; enhancing by Friederike Heine)