Taipei has sent officers to a NATO war college in Italy.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry revealed on Wednesday that it has sent some of its military officers to a NATO war college in Italy, acknowledging cooperation with the Western military alliance that is sure to anger China.
The disclosure by Taiwan’s defense ministry that its senior military officials have been periodically dispatched to an international military college for NATO nations in Italy, came as the ministry invited the press to an air force exercise held at Hsinchu Air Base in northern Taiwan on Wednesday. Reporters filmed French-built Mirage 2000 fighter jets taking off and armaments, including missiles, the jet is equipped with.
Members of the media interviewed three senior military officials at the base.
One Taiwanese air force officer, Lieutenant Colonel Wu Bong-yeng, told reporters that he went to the NATO Defense College in Rome between mid-2021 and January 2022 for a six-month course.
Wu said he studied the same six-month curriculum as other officers from NATO member nations and partner countries.
The lieutenant colonel said in line with the ministry’s policy, an official is dispatched to the college to attend the same course each year. He said the program has been in place for six or seven years.
Taiwan’s military is known for its cooperation with its US counterpart but interactions with other foreign militaries are much more rare. Wu’s comments detailing Taiwan’s ongoing exchange with NATO marks a rare disclosure.
Former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen visited Taiwan last week for talks with President Tsai Ing-wen.
He later told reporters European countries could join training exercises with Taiwan’s military forces.
The revelation comes after NATO said China poses “systemic challenges” to the alliance in its new Strategic Concept document that was issued in 2022. In its new strategic concept agreed in June, NATO described China as a challenge to the alliance’s “interests, security and values”, as an economic and military power that remains “opaque about its strategy, intentions and military build-up”.
NATO first made clear it had its eye on China in 2020 and said at the time the alliance would work to build stronger partnerships in the Indo-Pacific. Since then, some NATO countries have joined the US in sending warships into sensitive waters near China, including France, Germany, and Britain.
The US and its vassals have been taking steps to increase ties with Taiwan in recent years, which Beijing views as an affront to the one-China policy. These policies have provoked an increase in Chinese military activity around the island. This week, a group of German lawmakers visited Taiwan, and a US trade delegation is due to arrive on the island on Saturday.