President meets with lawmakers from Balkan states
ROC Central News Agency
03/13/2023 07:58 PM
Taipei, March 13 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday met with visiting lawmakers from three states in the Balkan Peninsula -- Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Romania -- who are in Taiwan to participate in a forum on parliamentary openness.
The group of lawmakers from the three countries is the first parliamentarian delegation from the Balkans to visit Taiwan since Kosovo became independent from Serbia in 2008.
The Balkans politicians arrived in Taiwan on Saturday night and will be in Taiwan until Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Sunday.
They will be participating in the 2023 Parliamentary Openness and Monitoring Forum scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, MOFA said, and visit various agencies and meet with other politicians such as Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), and Legislative Yuan Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃).
At the meeting on Monday, Tsai described the inaugural visit of the Balkans politicians as significant because it showed the growing cooperation between democratic states and was the start of Taiwan's exchanges with the region, an Office of the President statement said.
On the upcoming parliamentary forum, Tsai said she hoped it will serve as a platform to begin various partnerships between Taiwan and Kosovo, Romania and North Macedonia in the areas of trade, information technology and green energy development.
Within the group of visitors was the Kosovo-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group that was formed on Dec. 20, 2021.
One of the group's members, former Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, said during the meeting that he understood there were difficulties that both countries have to overcome when attempting to find areas of cooperation.
The two countries, however, still needed to try to find ways to work together, especially on economic issues, Hoti said.
He also noted that the trip was his second visit to Taiwan, and that he was happy to see that Taiwan had such a vibrant democracy.
(By Matt Yu, Sophia Yeh and James Lo)
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