Taiwan-Nordic cooperation vital to standing up to authoritarianism, diplomat says

• By Jonathan Chin / Staff writer, with CNA

Taiwanese officials and experts last week at a forum in Stockholm discussed joint measures to bolster national resilience in confronting the threat of authoritarian expansionism with their Scandinavian and Baltic counterparts.

The Taiwan-Nordic Forum on Wednesday last week focused on securing vital undersea infrastructure, protecting national airspace against intrusion by military aircraft of hostile powers, and potential cooperation between Taiwan and Nordic countries in a Taiwan Strait contingency, event organizer the Institute for Security and Development Policy said.

Representative to Sweden Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said in her opening speech that Taiwan is under constant threat from hostile Chinese actions conducted at sea and air, and in cyber, legal and psychological domains.

Beijing wages its campaign of intimidation amid attempts by authoritarian powers to reshape the international order in their favor, she said.

Taipei seeks peace through strength by investing in a resilient civil defense, the coordinated development of a defense industrial base and its armed forces under the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee established in 2024, Yeh said.

The committee is tasked with matters concerning national defense, the well-being of the civilian population, crisis response and democratic resilience to protect national sovereignty, promote industrial innovation and facilitate global cooperation, she said.

Taiwan-Nordic partnership is based on shared need to confront comparable strategic challenges, economic and technological collaborations, and common democratic values, she said.

Intelligence-sharing, industrial collaboration and forging democratic supply chains are crucial areas of cooperation, she said.

Last year, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) proposed the RISK Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables to counter malicious attacks on submarine cables, a threat Taiwan and Nordic countries have dealt with, Yeh said.

The initiative seeks risk mitigation through globally coordinated damage control and repair operations, information sharing among governments in real time, systemic reform of international norms and legal frameworks, and knowledge-building to develop professional capacity, she said.

Taiwan and Nordic countries can improve their cooperation in strategizing against cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns launched by hostile state-level actors, she said.

Experts participating in the forum emphasized the importance of an intergovernmental cooperative framework to tackle sabotage against undersea cables and closing legal loopholes that had allowed ships to enter critical maritime zones to damage undersea infrastructure.