British MP says much to explore boosting Taiwan support

TAIPEI: The chair of the British parliament's defence select committee said there was much to explore in boosting military help for Taiwan and that he had discussed the island's submarine programme while visiting Taipei last week.

Britain, like most countries, does not have formal diplomatic ties with democratically governed and Chinese-claimed Taiwan, but has stepped up its support for the island in the face of a rising military threat from Beijing, as have other Western nations.

British companies have been helping develop Taiwan's new fleet of domestically built submarines, despite the United States being Taiwan's most important foreign source of weapons.

Asked whether Britain should help Taiwan militarily, whether with weapons or intelligence sharing, Tobias Ellwood said that there was a lot to look at this in more detail, and he said, in response to emailed questions, Britain should help support Taiwan militarily, whether or not with weapons or intelligence sharing.