Taipei, June 17 (CNA) Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) on Friday met with members of the European Parliament in Brussels, including its Vice President Nicola Beer, as part of a previously announced European tour.
Prior to visiting Brussels, Wu, who arrived in Europe on Monday, made stops in Poland and the Czech Republic, according to international media reports.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) did not provide a detailed itinerary for Wu’s trip, divulging only that he planned to give a talk at a summit and meet with Ukrainian refugees in Prague.
Knowledge of Wu’s Brussels visit became public after several MEPs took to social media to share their photos with the foreign minister.
Beer, who led the highest-level delegation from the European Parliament to Taiwan in July 2022, welcomed Wu’s visit to Brussels on Twitter following their meeting with six other MEPs.
“Taiwan is an important and reliable economic partner for the EU and a firm member of the democratic family,” Beer said, adding that both sides “agreed to further intensify [their] political, economic and civil exchange and cooperation.”
MEP Rasa Juknevičienė from Lithuania also said Taiwan had been a vital part of the democratic world and that “defending its democracy is just as important as defending Ukraine’s.”
The European Commission, meanwhile, has declined to reveal whether any EU officials were scheduled to meet with Wu.
“We are not in the position to confirm any official meeting between representatives of the EU institutions and the Taiwanese visitor,” Peter Stano, a spokesman for the European Commission, said at a press briefing on Friday in response to a media question on the topic.
Asked to comment on Wu’s Europe trip at a press briefing in Beijing last week, Wang Wenbin (汪文斌), spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, urged the EU not to engage in any official contact with Taiwan.
Source: Focus Taiwan
