Photo: Prof. Chyungly Lee
On October 15, 2025, EVC Taiwan Office Head Marcin Jerzewski participated in the inaugural Taiwan-New Zealand Tête-à-tête on Security Policy, organized by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research on the occasion of a visit from the Kōmaru Kura—New Zealand Contemporary China Research Center, housed at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.
Jerzewski contributed to the session on “Geopolitics and Comprehensive Security in the South Pacific.” He specifically elaborated on the People’s Republic of China’s and Taiwan’s efforts to maintain their footprint in the Pacific Island countries, and the importance of the South Pacific for realizing Beijing’s ambitions to become the world’s leading maritime power. Based on the EVC Taiwan Office’s field work carried out in Fiji earlier this year, Jerzewski also commented on how the EU and its like-minded partners in the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan, can work together with Pacific Island countries to increase stability and prosperity of the area through initiatives boosting connectivity and addressing non-traditional security threats such as the climate crisis and public health challenges.
The Kōmaru Kura—New Zealand Contemporary China Research Center is Aotearoa New Zealand’s national research center on China. The Institute for National Defense and Security Research is a Taiwanese public think tank advancing policy research and strategic insight to support Taiwan’s security and defense. EVC is the leading partner of INDSR in Europe with a 5-year Memorandum of Understanding signed in June 2021. This cooperation includes sharing non-public strategic assessments related to Russia and China and exchanging Visiting Fellows for in-depth research cooperation.