The German Minister of Education is expected to visit Taiwan in the spring, despite Beijing's reluctance, AFP learned from a parliamentary source on Thursday.

It would be the first German ministerial visit to Taiwan in 26 years. The exact dates of the visit of Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Minister of Education and member of the liberal party FDP have not been specified at this stage.

A delegation of FDP parliamentarians will also travel to Taiwan next week, Bundestag Defense Committee Chairwoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann told AFP on Thursday, who will herself be part of the group. of parliamentarians.

“With our trip to Taiwan at the start of the new year, we want to send a clear signal that we will never accept that the simple law of the strongest, even in the Indo-Pacific, becomes part of international politics again” , she explained.

The deputies intend to "show (their) solidarity with the people of Taiwan through this trip", she added.

The delegation is expected to meet, during its visit organized from Monday to Thursday, representatives of the government and the opposition as well as organizations for the defense of human rights, representatives of the economy and the military.

This trip is likely to cause tensions with Beijing, which opposes visits by foreign deputies, qualified as interference in its internal affairs.

Relations between Beijing and Taipei, already tense, deteriorated sharply in 2022, Beijing having multiplied military maneuvers around the island which it considers part of its territory to be reconquered one day, by force if necessary.

The most significant were carried out in retaliation for a visit to the island by Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. China opposes any official exchange between foreign countries and Taiwan