The Minister of the Ministry of Digital Affairs (moda), Audrey Tang, met with a group of people led by Eric Bothorel, President of the Taiwan Friendship Group of the French National Assembly to talk about how Taiwan and France can work together better on specific digital problems.
The Minister said that since moda was set up in August of last year, European and American countries have been worried about digital meddling from other countries in Taiwan. She was asked to go to a meeting of the Investigative Committee on Foreign Interference of the French National Assembly on to talk about how Taiwan has used digital resilience to stop digital interference.
Minister Audrey said that she agreed with France’s idea that Taiwan and France should keep exchanging ideas and working together in digital fields like the digital transformation of the government, cyber security, and information resilience. She also said that both sides should keep meeting regularly at the affairs level.
She hoped to start with the mutual recognition of electronic signatures to improve the interoperability of both sides’ digital networks and make business, government, and other interactions more efficient.
In April 2022, Taiwan, France, and 60 other countries signed “A Declaration for the Future of the Internet.” This document talks about how countries with similar values and ideas will work together to make the Internet a strong infrastructure that protects human rights, freedom, and mutual trust. In this way, it is hoped that they will work together to help “Data Altruism” grow and bring more people together.
The group said that they agreed with the idea of Public Code that moda was promoting. They also agreed with the idea that all democratic countries should work together for joint defence, so Taiwan shouldn’t be left alone.
In addition, Minister Audrey, recently met with the Chairperson of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), Laura Rosenberger, to explore ways to strengthen democratic governance and improve the digital resiliency of the nation, as well as to look forward to other chances for collaborative work. This gathering demonstrates a chance for mutual support to further the cause of democracy.
During the discussion, the Minister brought cited the destruction of submarine cables in the Matsu region as an illustration to highlight the significance of employing resilient building practices. To make certain that communications remain uninterrupted during times of crisis, the Ministry is pushing for the implementation of measures such as disaster roaming and non-synchronous orbital satellites, and it will continue to look to the information security standards of the United States when developing related programmes and legislation.
Minister Audrey further stated that Taiwan and the United States are both democratic and free countries that value pluralism and free expression equally. The power of civil society can prevent the polarisation of public discourse; for example, the public can monitor the community platform on their own initiative, and they cannot accept advertisements involving political or social issues published by foreign forces prior to the general election or referendum.
The Minister also expressed her firm support for Taiwan’s participation in the signing of the “Declaration on the Future of the Internet” and thanked the United States for inviting her back earlier this year to deliver the opening address at the second Summit for Democracy, hoping that both sides will continue to build on the foundation of previous cooperation to help each other and deepen democracy.
