President Lai welcomes French parliamentary delegation

HomeUpdatesPresident Lai welcomes French parliamentary delegation
President Lai Ching-te said May 28 that he looked forward to deepening strategic partnership with France to jointly advance prosperity.
 
Lai made the remarks while receiving a French delegation led by Marie-Noëlle Battistel, chair of the French National Assembly’s Taiwan Friendship Group, at the Presidential Office in Taipei City. The delegates included Olivier Faure, first secretary of the French Socialist Party, as well as National Assembly Members Christine Pirès-Beaune, Virginie Duby-Muller, Cyrille Isaac-Sibille, and Mickaël Cosson, the PO said.
 
In his remarks, Lai noted that Taiwan and France are democratic partners that share the values of freedom and respect for human rights. He thanked France for its continuous support of peace in the Indo-Pacific.
 
In 2023 the French Parliament passed the seven-year Military Programming Law, making France the first country to enshrine protecting freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait into law, the president said, adding that in April this year, French President Emmanuel Macron and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi released a joint statement underscoring the importance of cross-strait stability.
 
Lai said that France is not only Taiwan’s fifth-largest trade partner in Europe but also a major scientific research partner. In April the second edition of the France-Taiwan Science and Technology Conference was held in France, with participants engaging in in-depth exchanges in major areas such as artificial intelligence, biomedicine, cybersecurity, green energy and carbon reduction, the ocean, space, and quantum technology, the PO added.
 
In response, Battistel said that for many years France and Taiwan have continued to expand cooperation in academia, culture, the economy, transportation and people-to-people exchanges, signifying Taiwan’s role as a major partner in the region. Amid global geopolitical tensions and challenges to international law, democracies must rally to defend shared values, she concluded. (POC-E)
 
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