The EU today for the first time is to join Taiwan, the US and Japan to host a meeting of the Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The virtual meeting would focus on supply chain restructuring, and financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, Department of North American Affairs Director-General Douglas Hsu (徐佑典) told a news briefing in Taipei.
The framework was established in 2015 by Taiwan and the US as a platform to promote multilateral cooperation, with Japan joining later.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
Australia, Guatemala, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK have hosted meetings, and the European Economic and Trade Office, representing the EU, has joined in, Hsu said.
German Representative to Taiwan Thomas Prinz would participate in today’s meeting virtually, the first time that a German envoy to Taiwan has joined one of the meetings, Hsu said.
The meeting is to revolve around the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the global economy, and how governments should adjust their industrial supply chains, and help small and medium-sized enterprises to overcome the crisis, he said.
Asked whether “supply chain” refers to the semiconductor industry, Hsu said that the meeting would discuss industrial supply chains generally, without a focus on specific sectors.
The ministry would continue to invite other like-minded countries to join the framework and expand the issues tackled through the platform, he said.
Meanwhile, asked about a possible visit to Taiwan by former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, Hsu said that the ministry would always wlecome incumbent or former US officials, while Pompeo himself has expressed an interest in visiting.
The ministry would stay in contact with Pompeo and invite him to Taiwan at an appropriate time and under proper disease prevention measures, Hsu said.
“As a proponent of freedom, enjoying some Taiwanese dried pineapple. Checkmate,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter on Monday along with a photograph of him holding the snack at home.
Pompeo on April 1 tweeted a photograph of a meeting with Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) at the Twin Oaks estate in Washington.
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