Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu and her entourage, which includes Vice Foreign Affairs Minister Chiu Jong-nan (邱榮男), flew via Paris to Gambia to attend the inauguration ceremony of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh.
The inauguration ceremony, which was scheduled for later yesterday, marks the beginning of the African leader's second term. Lu is attending on behalf of President Chen Shui-bian (
Gambian Vice President Isatou Njie-Saidy met Lu in person at the airport, where Lu and the Taiwan delegation were honored with a military salute.
Lu met with President Jammeh in the evening to present him with her credentials. The vice president said that she is confident that bilateral relations between Gambia and Taiwan will be further bolstered during Jammeh's second term.
President Chen offered his personal felicitations to Jammeh on Oct. 22, upon his re-election as Gambia's president. Jammeh garnered a convincing 52.96 percent of the vote in the country's October presidential election.
Lu said she found it interesting that Gambia uses marbles to cast votes. Voters pick a marble of the color of the candidate they want to vote for and put it in a box. She said marbles in the past have been used as tools for entertainment or even attacks.
Lu also said this was her second visit to Africa.
The first time she visited Africa was when she went to South Africa, where she witnessed Nelson Mandela cast his historic vote in front of the cameras during the 1994 presidential election there.
"And today I found myself surrounded by the passion of the Gambian people," Lu said.
En route to Gambia, Lu met with Taiwan's Paris representative at the Charles de Gaulle airport.
The vice president told the representatives that she had thought about serving as a career diplomat when she was young, but the dream failed to come true because of the "tremendous restrictions put on women."
During her time on the Legislative Yuan's foreign affairs committee, the vice president said, she worked hard to have the restrictions on female diplomats lifted. Lu said she is now pleased to see more and more women working in the field of diplomacy.
Lu also told Hsieh that many in Taiwan are pushing actively for amending the constitution. However, people in Taiwan know little of France's semi-presidential style of government, which some politicians and scholars advocate for Taiwan.
She said the government, as well as Taiwan's office in Paris should encourage more students and academics to study in France and learn more about its unique system of government.
During her stay in Gambia, Lu is expected to hold talks with Gambia's political leaders as well as inspect the ROC Embassy. She is also scheduled to inspect a number of Taiwanese-funded agricultural projects.
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