Members of the European Parliament on Tuesday expressed support for Taiwan and highlighted the importance of establishing a partnership between Taiwan and the EU.
At a seminar titled “Why Taiwan Matters” held at the European Parliament, European Parliament-Taiwan Friendship Group chairman Werner Langen said the group is staunchly supportive of Taiwan, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) speech on Taiwan in January underlined the increasing importance of forging a partnership between the EU and Taiwan.
He also stressed EU support for peace and called on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to maintain constructive dialogue, adding that after the European Parliament elections in May, the Taiwan Friendship Group would continue to push for greater support of Taipei.
Photo courtesy of the Presidential Office
Meanwhile, Taiwanese experts in international relations called on the EU to increase active cooperation with Taiwan on the basis of the shared core values of democracy and freedom.
Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) said that Taiwan’s success is evidence that democracy can be implemented in Asia and given the EU’s core values of democracy and freedom, cooperation between Taiwan and EU should be enhanced.
In contrast to China, which is becoming increasingly authoritarian, Taiwan’s diverse democracy guarantees human rights, Lai said, adding that given the standoff between democratic Taiwan and authoritarian China, Taiwan’s existence is of great importance to the international community.
Also at the seminar, Global Taiwan Institute executive director Russell Hsiao (蕭良其) highlighted the US’ long-standing support for Taiwan, citing as an example the December 2016 telephone call between then-US president-elect Donald Trump and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
In addition, in a speech to the Hudson Institute in Washington in October last year, US Vice President Mike Pence condemned China for luring away three of Taiwan’s Latin American allies, describing such actions as threatening stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Pence lauded Taiwan’s democracy, saying: “America will always believe that Taiwan’s embrace of democracy shows a better path for all the Chinese people,” Hsiao said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also praised Taiwan as a democratic success story in a statement read at the 19th Micronesian Presidents Summit last month, Hsiao added.
The Brussels seminar was hosted by European Parliament-Taiwan Friendship Group deputy chairman Andrey Kovatchev and attended by nine other European Parliament members, dozens of parliamentary assistants and others with an interest in cross-strait issues.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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