President Tsai receives delegation from Swedish-Taiwanese Parliamentary...

2023/08/25

President Tsai Ing-wen said Aug. 23 that Taiwan will continue to work with Sweden and other democracies to strengthen their democratic alliance and maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
 
Tsai made the remarks while receiving a delegation from the Swedish-Taiwanese Parliamentary Association at the Presidential Office in Taipei City. Led by Mathias Tegner, vice president of the association, the group comprises cross-party parliamentarians Joar Forssell, Johan Hultberg, Asa Eriksson, Eva Lindh and Stefan Olsson.
 
According to Tsai, the delegation members all pay close attention to issues concerning Taiwan, evidenced by their proposals in the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament, for numerous parliamentary questions and motions in support of Taiwan and their advocacy for the country’s international participation. Tsai added that the association also issued a statement in April stressing the importance of cross-strait peace and stability.
 
Concerns over security in the Taiwan Strait and Sweden’s intentions to deepen relations with Taiwan expressed by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in May are sincerely appreciated, Tsai said. She added that she looks forward to furthering the bilateral partnership in areas spanning climate change and supply chain security.
 
Regarding economic ties, the president said the two countries’ trade reached US$1.7 billion last year, up 12.6 percent from 2021. She urged the delegation members to lend their support to the signing of a Taiwan-EU bilateral investment agreement.
 
In response, Tegner said Taiwan and Sweden recognize the values of peace, cooperation and a rules-based world order and both are freedom-loving and export-dependent democracies. The countries have mutual interest in enhanced cooperation like student exchange projects and he added that he believes direct flights would further bilateral interaction.
 
Relations with Taiwan are an important topic in the Riksdag, as evidenced by its suggestion to the government to open a House of Sweden in Taipei, Tegner said. He also expressed disagreement for the country’s exclusion from the World Health Organization and World Health Assembly and praised the country’s development in areas like freedom of speech, transparency and pluralism, which make Taiwan a beacon of democracy.


Source: Taiwan Today (https://taiwantoday.tw/index.php)