Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?) yesterday met with a group of visiting Japanese lawmakers at an event that highlighted the solidarity between the nations in countering China’s bid for hegemony in the Indo-Pacific region.
Japanese lawmakers Keiji Furuya and Minoru Kihara led the delegation of the Japan-Republic of China Diet Members’ Consultative Council, which arrived in Taiwan on Monday and was scheduled to depart yesterday evening.
Taiwanese lawmakers of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the New Power Party and the Taiwan People’s Party also attended the meeting at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
You said he was happy to meet the Japanese delegation face-to-face after working with their group over teleconference during the launch of the Taiwan-Japan Parliamentary Amity Association and the Taiwan-US-Japan Strategic Dialogue last year.
You also expressed his condolences over the passing of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who he called a tireless friend of Taiwan, especially when the nation faced adversity.
Taiwanese were moved by Abe’s remark that “a Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency,” he said, adding that the late Japanese leader has laid a firm foundation for the nations to boost their bilateral relations, he said.
Beijing’s policies are guided by internal repression and external expansion, he said, citing China’s military drills around Taiwan early this month, and China and the Solomon Islands in May striking a security pact.
“These actions by China to extend its reach not only increases tensions in the Indo-Pacific region, but also constitute an immense threat to global peace that is worrying,” he said, adding that Taiwan must look to strengthening its defenses to protect itself.
Taiwan expresses its gratitude to Japan, the US and other democracies for taking a stand in recent diplomatic events including the US-Japan Economic Policy Consultative Committee and a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Indonesia to condemn Beijing’s saber rattling, he said.
Taiwan thanks Japan for its generous support for maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, especially as the international order confronts the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the challenge posed by China to the world’s democracies, he said
The legislature agrees with Japan’s strategic vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, and welcomes the broadening of parliamentary exchanges between the two countries, he said.
Taiwan is grateful to Japan’s donation of vaccines during a local COVID-19 outbreak last year, and Taiwanese lawmakers look forward to working with their colleagues in Japan to enhance bilateral ties, he said.
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