By Philip Blenkinsop
(Reuters) -&nbsp;European countries should strengthen relations with&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;if they want continued&nbsp;Taiwanese&nbsp;investment&nbsp;in semiconductor production, Foreign&nbsp;Minister&nbsp;Joseph Wu said during a visit to&nbsp;Europe last week.
Overseas&nbsp;investments by&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC), the world's largest contract&nbsp;chipmaker, need government approval, including for a potential factory in Germany.
Wu said the government was not placing conditions on&nbsp;investments by TSMC and it was for the company to decide if a project would make a profit.
Wu said&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;would not block&nbsp;investment&nbsp;in&nbsp;Europe, but there was a "philosophical issue" that a country wanting&nbsp;Taiwanese help needed to consider a broader picture of relations with&nbsp;Taiwan.
"I think that is something for us to think about," he said. "Even though we are not selfish in stopping TSMC making&nbsp;investment&nbsp;in other countries, we certainly hope that other countries who want to attract TSMC... can also think about the situation&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;is in."
China claims self-ruled&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control.&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;strongly objects to China's sovereignty claims and says only the island's people can decide their future.
"If they can think along that positive line, the relations between&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;and&nbsp;European countries, major&nbsp;European countries, are going to be so much better than before," said Wu.
The&nbsp;minister&nbsp;asked not to disclose the country he was in, due to the sensitivity of his trip.&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;has no formal diplomatic&nbsp;ties&nbsp;with any&nbsp;European country except the Vatican and China warned&nbsp;Europe against official&nbsp;ties&nbsp;ahead of Wu's visit.
Wu did visit the Czech Republic and, according to sources, also travelled to Brussels, where&nbsp;EU&nbsp;and NATO headquarters are located.
Wu said&nbsp;EU&nbsp;leaders were clearer than before in calling for peace in the&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;Strait, the stretch of water between China and&nbsp;Taiwan, and preservation of the status quo and said the bloc should consider more cooperation with&nbsp;Taiwan, such as a bilateral&nbsp;investment&nbsp;agreement (BIA).
The&nbsp;EU&nbsp;included&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;on its list of potential BIA partners in 2015, but it has not held talks with&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;on the issue since.
"It's very challenging," said Wu, adding he was concerned it was being held hostage due to a frozen&nbsp;EU-China&nbsp;investment&nbsp;deal.
"We hope we can go ahead with it and we hope we can persuade the&nbsp;EU&nbsp;leadership to think about this in a positive way."
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(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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