Former foreign ministers from the Czech Republic and the Philippines are to speak at the inaugural Forum for Democratic Cooperation (FDC) in Taipei today.
Tomas Petricek, the Czech Republic’s top diplomat from 2018 to 2021, and Delia Domingo Albert, who from 2003 to 2004 was the first woman to serve as the Philippines’ foreign minister, are among the special guests invited to appear at the event.
The FDC is being organized by the Forum 2000 Foundation, which was created by former Czech president Vaclav Havel, to get democratic actors to address shared challenges in “an increasingly contested global environment,” the foundation said in an earlier news release.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Speaking yesterday at a news conference previewing the forum, foundation executive director Jakub Klepal said Taipei was chosen as the forum’s first stop because of the fast-changing geopolitical environment.
“It’s a difficult time in the global political situation. It’s also a fragile time in the regional situation,” Klepal said.
Given the growth of artificial intelligence and the restructuring of the global economy, in which Taiwan plays crucial roles, it is especially timely to hold a conference in Taipei, he said.
Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, which is co-organizing the FDC, welcomed the event making its debut in Asia and being held in Taipei.
The ministry has facilitated discussions by inviting parliamentarians and city councilors from 10 European countries to attend, Huang said.
“This is a great event that will highlight democratic cooperation, especially in terms of resilience,” Huang said. “We are also very appreciative of the organizers’ efforts in putting together a schedule and program that will feature resilience-building and cooperation among middle-sized and smaller democracies.”
Other speakers at the forum would be Tuvaluan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Labour and Trade Paulson Panapa, and former Lithuanian deputy minister of foreign affairs Mantas Adomenas, who served in that role from 2021 to 2023, the organizers said.
Forum 2000 was founded in 1996 as a joint initiative of Havel, Japanese philanthropist Yohei Sasakawa and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel.
Havel, a prominent dissident who led the 1989 overthrow of communism, was elected president of Czechoslovakia, but stepped down before the country split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia at the end of 1992.
He died in 2011 at the age of 75.
Speaking at a news conference, National Endowment for Democracy founding president Carl Gershman praised Taiwan’s democratic achievements.
Taiwan’s economic, technological and political success, despite being next to a massive authoritarian regime, proves that democracy is “not a Western patent, but a universal value,” Gershman said.
Taiwan’s democracy carries great symbolic significance for the world, he said, adding that the nation’s achievements demonstrate that it is possible to realize democracy in a Chinese-speaking nation with a Confucian cultural identity.
Gershman also recalled his first visit to Taiwan in 1994, saying that it was then that he first envisioned the nation establishing a democracy foundation.
Additional reporting by Chen Yun
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