Around 90 lawmakers from around the world will gather in Taipei next Friday to discuss regional security issues, in a meeting lauded by its organizers as a diplomatic coup for Taiwan.
"The fact that we'll get around 90 parliamentarians from around 20 countries to gather in Taiwan shows that Taiwan is not at all isolated," DPP Legislator Parris Chang (張旭成) said at a press conference yesterday morning.
Lawmakers from the US, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia and Thailand will attend the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Asian Pacific Security at the Grand Hotel.
However, sources revealed that three members of the Mongolian parliament had decided not to come, although they did not say why.
"Maybe it's very sensitive for them to attend the meeting in Taipei," said an organizer who declined to be named, referring to Mongolia's ties with neighbor China.
Members of China's National People's Congress had also been invited by key organizer Trong Chai (蔡同榮) of the DPP legislative caucus, in his capacity as the president of the ROC (Taiwan)-USA Inter-Parliamentary Amity Association (RIAA).
But his invitations have been met with silence, organizers said.
"He has not heard from them yet," another organizer said.
DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), in her capacity as the RIAA's spokesperson, urged the international community to help Taiwanese lawmakers take part in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
Established in 1889, the IPU is the international organization of parliaments of sovereign states, a focal point for worldwide parliamentary dialogue.
Hsiao said organizers of the conference set to take place on Friday -- financed largely by the foreign ministry -- would endeavor to institutionalize the gathering in the future.
The conference will include group discussions on trilateral relations between Taiwan, Japan and the US, free passage through the Taiwan Strait, anti-terrorism, democracy and human rights, and economy and trade.
US members of Congress asked that anti-terrorism be included on the agenda, Chai said.
President Chen Shui-bian (
Former president Lee Teng-hui (
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