Taiwan’s president thanks visiting French delegation for strong support

Beijing, April 28 (EFE).- A delegation of French senators on Friday met Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, who thanked them for their strong support for the island and their show of friendship.

Tsai told the delegation, led by French Senate Vice President Alain Richard, who is chair of the senate’s Taiwan Friendship Group, that the two countries shared the values of democracy and freedom and were important economic and trade partners.

She added that the island would continue to play a key role in the path to global democracy and economic development, official news agency CNA reported.

In his address, senator Alain Richard said that the French lawmakers were very concerned about Taiwan’s security and would urge the French government to pay more attention to the security of the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from mainland China.

Richard said that one of the objectives of the trip was to pay tribute and show respect to Taiwan’s government and commend it on the progress of freedom and democracy in the country.

Richard said that democratic countries were mutually supportive and that there was growing interest in Taiwan among the French people.

The trip was also aimed at strengthening mutual trust and cooperation in security, he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron recently said after a trip to China that Europe must avoid getting drawn into any conflict between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan.

According to a group of French lawmakers visiting the island last week, Paris’s support for maintaining the status quo remained unchanged.

Taiwan is one of the top sources of tension between China and the US, mainly because Washington is Taipei’s key arms supplier and could be its greatest military ally in the event of a war with China.

China considers the self-ruled island part of its territory and says it reserves the right to use force to reunify it, even as a peaceful merger would be its first choice.

The island was the refuge of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) forces after losing the civil war with the Communists, who, since then, have claimed sovereignty over the territory. EFE

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