Taiwan and Slovakia have much to gain from enhanced cooperation on trade, investment and industry, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said in Bratislava yesterday.
Wu made the remarks during a speech at a Taiwan Forum hosted by Slovak think tank GLOBSEC, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, adding that it was his second speech in Europe since his last one at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit in 2019.
“The conference aims to initiate and facilitate dialogue between government officials, experts and businesses from Taiwan and the wider V4 region on some of the most imminent threats central Europe is facing after the [COVID-19] pandemic,” the think tank said in a news release.
Photo: AFP
The V4, or Visegrad Group, is a cultural and political alliance of the four central European countries of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
The pandemic has brought Taiwan and Slovakia closer, Wu said, underscoring the two countries’ democratic transformations.
“The Nationalist government of the Republic of China relocated itself to Taiwan in 1949. For the past 72 years, the hardworking 23.5 million people transformed the institution, economy and our ways of life, from poverty to prosperity, from authoritarianism to democracy, and from uniformity to diversity,” he said.
Likewise,”the Velvet Revolution in 1989 showed the whole world that Slovaks and Czechs were equally eager to embrace democracy and freedom, and the world watched with admiration as the two peoples peacefully dissolved their country,” he said.
Wu thanked Slovakia for having donated 160,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan, adding that the foreign affairs committee of Slovakia’s National Council this year also for the first time passed a motion backing Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly.
“Throughout the outbreak, authoritarian states have continued to discredit democratic governments through disinformation campaigns, spreading rhetoric that democracy is an ineffective form of governance in the face of a major challenge like COVID,” he said.
“Hostile forces initiate aggressive disinformation campaigns, attempting to divide us and weaken our democracy from within. Cooperation and solidarity remain the keys to combating the pandemic and addressing many shared problems,” he added.
Wu announced that Slovakia next month would be cohosting a workshop on fighting disinformation and hybrid warfare under the Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF) created by Taiwan and the US, after it first cohosted a GCTF workshop on post-pandemic recovery and labor issues last month.
The ministry’s Taiwan-Europe Connectivity Scholarship is to be extended to Slovak students interested in pursuing degrees in key industries, Wu added.
“Meanwhile, we are looking forward to receiving the Slovak vice-ministerial delegation in December. It is sure to break new ground in our bilateral relationship,” he said, referring to a delegation that might be led by Slovak Deputy Economy Minister Karol Galek.
“Now more than ever before, forces for good must stand as one and draw a line in the sand,” Wu said. “Liberty will not be sacrificed. Freedom will not be surrendered. And democracy will not be defeated.”
Taiwan and Slovakia have signed several agreements, including on preventing double taxation, exchange of drivers’ licenses, working holidays and economic cooperation, the ministry said.
Another 66-person Taiwanese delegation visiting Slovakia last week signed seven memorandums of understanding with Slovak public and private entities in areas such as electric cars, space technology, smart cities, business digitalization, tourism and science park cooperation.
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