A group of European Parliament members are visiting Taiwan to gain a deeper understanding of the country’s political environment and learn about the latest developments in cross-strait ties, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The five-member EU delegation will stay until Thursday and includes European Conservatives and Reformists Group vice-chair Ryszard Legutko, as well as fellow Polish politicians Tomasz Poreba and Marek Grobarczyk.
During their stay, the EU delegates are to meet with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), lawmakers and officials from of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense and the Mainland Affairs Council, the foreign ministry said.
The delegation is also to deliver a letter of support to Ma, conveying their condolences for the death of 65-year-old Taiwanese fisherman Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成), who was shot and killed by Philippine Coast Guard personnel on May 9 while on a fishing boat in the overlapping exclusive economic zones of the two countries, the Taipei Representative Offices in the EU and Belgium said.
The letter also criticizes the Philippine officers involved in the incident for not providing humanitarian assistance to Hung and the other fishermen after the Taiwanese fishing boat was fired on, the representative office said.
The delegation’s itinerary also includes visits to the Hualien Air Force Base and the Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology in Taoyuan, the military’s main research and development unit, the foreign ministry said.
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