Foreign
A delegation of German lawmakers are set to travel to Taiwan, the island’s foreign ministry announced Thursday, amid growing tensions with China in the region.
A group from the Berlin-Taipei parliamentary friendship group in the German Bundestag are expected arrive in Taiwan on Sunday and stay until Thursday, foreign minister spokeswoman Joanne Ou said.
Chairman Klaus-Peter Willsch and five other German lawmakers from the cross-party delegation will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen, Vice President Lai Ching-te, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, and other Taiwanese lawmakers and representatives from institutions.
Ou said it marked the first German official delegation visiting Taiwan since the coronavirus pandemic and will be focusing on security.
She said it was the second delegation to visit from a major European country since U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taipei in early August, which was followed by China’s large-scale manoeuvres and military drills around Taiwan.
A French delegation of lawmakers visited Taiwan in early September.
Ou said the visit would strengthen connection and democratic resilience, and that Taiwan and Germany, which share values of democracy, freedom, rule of law, and human rights, would work together to defend the rules-based international order.
Taiwan has had an independent government since 1949, but China considers the democratic island part of its territory and opposes any form of official contacts between Taiwan and other countries.(dpa/NAN)
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Tags: Joanne Ou Joseph Wu Klaus-Peter Willsch Lai Ching-te Tsai Ing-wen You Si-kun
