Several groups of lawmakers were yesterday to depart for the US, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to conduct “parliamentary diplomacy” during the Legislative Yuan recess.
The delegation to the US is being led by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), who is also the convener of the legislature’s Diplomacy and National Defense Committee. The group is to visit Washington; Phoenix, Arizona; and Los Angeles.
Group members are to meet with US lawmakers who have previously visited Taiwan, including US Representative Mario Diaz Balart, cochair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, Chiang said.
The delegates are also to meet Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and a number of senior US officials, visit Taiwanese businesspeople and attend overseas compatriot activities to enhance Taipei-Washington relations, Chiang added.
Other members of the delegation are KMT legislators Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), Yeh Yu-lan (葉毓蘭), Lee De-wei (李德維) and Hung Mong-kai (洪孟楷).
The legislators in the other delegations are members of the parliamentary amity associations with Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.
The lawmakers are scheduled to meet their counterparts in the three European countries, and to visit nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and refugee centers in Poland that have taken in Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war against their country.
Meanwhile, independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) are to return from Washington after attending the eighth World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet.
Hung wrote on Facebook that he and Lim also visited the US Department of State and several local NGOs.
They also met with Nury Turkel, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and Damon Wilson, president and CEO of the National Endowment for Democracy, Hung wrote.
Lawmakers typically travel abroad in the summer during the Legislative Yuan recess before the body reopens in September.
However, they traveled rarely over the past two years because of travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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