Ex-NATO chief says Europe 'too naive' on China's Taiwan threats

China-Taiwan Conflict: Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is visiting Taipei, said European and NATO powers were "too naive".

European powers must do more to dissuade China from invading Taiwan, including being prepared to unleash painful economic sanctions and train Taiwanese troops, the former head of NATO said Thursday.

China-Taiwan Conflict: A Chinook helicopter carrying a Taiwan flag flies over the city during the country's National Day celebration in Taipei, Taiwan.(Reuters)

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is visiting Taipei, said European and NATO powers were "too naive" in the run-up to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and risked repeating the same mistake with Beijing.

Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion by China, which claims the self-ruled democracy as part of its territory to be taken one day.

"The world hasn't so far paid sufficient attention to the tensions in the Taiwan Strait," Rasmussen told reporters.

"And we should realise that the conflict between China and Taiwan has, and will have, global repercussions. So we have a global interest in preventing those tensions from escalating into an armed conflict."'

Rasmussen argued that while the United States must remain Taiwan's primary military ally, European and NATO powers should be prepared to put in place policies that will make Beijing "think twice" about an invasion.

"I think we should react determinedly if China were to attack Taiwan, and we should replace strategic ambiguity with strategic clarity," he said.

In the years leading up to Moscow's invasion of its neighbour, European powers began training Ukrainian troops.

"We could do exactly the same with servicemen and women from Taiwan, we could conduct such training and exercises on European soil," Rasmussen said.

He added that military and cyber defence equipment could be shared "to make Taiwan capable to defend itself by itself".

But above all, he argued, Europe's contributions would need to be "comprehensive and profound sanctions against China" in the event of an invasion.