President Lai addresses Concordia Annual Summit

2024/09/27

President Lai Ching-te spoke to attendees of the 2024 Concordia Annual Summit via a recorded video message, pledging to build a stronger Taiwan while expressing his hope that democracies will jointly counter authoritarian aggression.
 
Democracy around the world faces threats such as authoritarian expansion, Lai said, citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and adding China’s intensifying military intimidation in the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas as examples. He specifically noted China’s use of gray zone tactics, in addition to lawfare and the misrepresentation of history, to expand its power. Democratic Taiwan and authoritarian China are not subordinate to each other, Lai stressed during his explanation of Beijing’s distortion of U.N. General Assembly Resolution 2758.
 
The president also thanked the U.S. and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China for opposing Beijing’s misinterpretations and welcomed more countries to join in support of democracy worldwide. He went on to say that Taiwan’s four pillars of peace are a plan to maintain the cross-strait peace and stability, adding that the country is committed to strengthening national defense, building economic security, deepening partnerships with democratic countries, and ensuring stable and principled cross-strait leadership.
 
Alexander Tah-ray Yui, head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S., also attended the event, holding a dialogue with Keith Krach, former U.S. undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment. Their discussion focused on Taiwan’s democratic resolve and ways to shape global security and peace through strategic cooperation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
 
Maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait is key to global economic growth and prosperity, Yui said. Taiwan is an indispensable partner in sustainable supply chains as it provides over 90 percent of global advanced semiconductor products, he added, calling on the international community to squarely face the country’s improper exclusion from the U.N.’s specialized agencies and global organizations, and to incorporate its expertise and contributions into the process of sustainable international development.
 
According to the Presidential Office, the summit was organized by New York-based nonprofit organization Concordia on the sidelines of the ongoing 79th U.N. General Assembly. Dignitaries giving speeches at the event included President Santiago Peña Palacios of Paraguay and Theresa May, former prime minister of the U.K. 


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