Following Chinese live fire military exercises around Taiwan on December 30 that infringed upon the island's territorial waters and impacted 941 international and domestic flights. While the exercises finished on the same day, China has not officially declared them over.
Before the conclusion of the drills on Tuesday, spokespersons for the respective foreign ministries of South Korea and the Philippines issued separate statements calling for peaceful cross-strait relations and avoiding actions that could heighten tensions.
After the drills concluded, an EU spokeswoman also urged restraint from all parties and stressed that issues should be resolved through dialogue.
"The EU has a direct interest in the preservation of the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. We oppose any unilateral actions that change the status quo, in particular by force or coercion," she said.
The individual foreign ministries of the UK, France, Australia, and Germany released similar statements expressing their concerns over actions that increase the risk of accidents or escalation.
Taiwanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung thanked allies for their collective support in a Facebook post on the night of December 30, with a foreign ministry press release the following day stressing that Beijing's display of force only deepened tensions whileundermining regional peace, and calling on China to halt further unilateral provocations.
