Taiwan's foreign minister to visit Slovakia, Czech Republic
ROC Central News Agency
10/21/2021 03:24 PM
Taipei, Oct. 21 (CNA) Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) will visit the Slovak Republic and Czech Republic next week to enhance closer ties with the two Central European countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced Thursday.
During his stay in Slovakia, Wu will give a keynote speech on Oct. 26 at an annual conference hosted by local think tank GLOBSEC on the theme "Resilience in a post-pandemic world," MOFA spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said.
Wu will then visit the Czech Republic's capital Prague where he will receive a medal from the President of the Czech Senate Miloš Vystrčil, to honor the minister as a special guest to the country, and meet with Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib.
Both Vystrčil and Hřib have previously visited Taiwan.
The minister will also speak at a seminar co-hosted by the Czech Academy of Science and local think tank Sinopsis, she added.
However, Wu will not attend a conference organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) in Rome, Italy, later this month, "due to a tight schedule and each country's COVID-19 prevention rules," according to Ou.
The minister will speak at the conference virtually instead, Ou said.
IPAC announced Monday that Wu was among the individuals targeted by the Chinese government, including Penpa Tsering of the Central Tibetan Administration, former Hong Kong Legislator Nathan Law, and Uyghur artist and activist Rahima Mahmut, who have been invited to attend the Oct. 29 conference.
The event is meant to serve as a "counter-meeting" ahead of the G20 Leaders Summit to demand a tougher stance toward the Chinese government, IPAC said in a press release.
MOFA previously confirmed the invitation but said that Wu's itinerary in Europe was still being drafted.
Although unable to visit Rome, Wu's upcoming European trip to two countries with which Taiwan has no official diplomatic relations remains rare for a Taiwan foreign minister given the fact that those countries would usually face strong pressure from China to prevent such a trip from going ahead.
MOFA did not say when Wu is expected to depart or when he will return to Taiwan.
Wu's upcoming visit coincides with the ongoing visit of a Taiwan trade delegation led by National Development Council (NDC) chief Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫).
The 66-person delegation departed Taiwan on Wednesday to visit the Czech Republic and Slovakia as well as Lithuania, from Oct. 20-30, as part of the Taiwan government's strategy to boost trade and economic ties with Central and Eastern European countries.
According to Ou, although the NDC and Wu's European visits will not overlap, both are intended to solidify Taiwan's ties with those countries and to showcase the nation's "strategic importance, strength in the fields of economics and trade, and determination to defend freedom and democracy with international partners."
The three countries' relations with Taiwan have improved over the past few years despite pressure from China. The trio have also together donated more than 850,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan to reciprocate the country's face mask donations in 2020.
(By Joseph Yeh)
Enditem/AW
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