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Czech speaker says country will be "with Taiwan"
The visiting speaker of the Czech parliament's lower house has affirmed her country's ties with Taiwan in a speech at the Legislative Yuan - saying her country "will be with" Taiwan.
During a special legislative session which saw lawmakers from across party lines, Marketa Pekarova Adamova said she is in Taiwan to assure the people "that we are with you not only now, but will be with you also in the future, under any circumstances."
Adamova is leading a 150-member delegation of business leaders, academics, and government officials to Taiwan this week.
During her speech she hailed the affinity between Taiwan and the Czech Republic, noting that both sides had walked through their respective thorny paths to gradually move toward democratization in the 1990s. And she went on to say "it would be difficult to find two other nations which are as similar as the Czech Republic and Taiwan, as stories of the two are "intertwined."
Prior to addressing the Legislative Yuan, Adamova was awarded a medal by Legislative Speaker You Si-kun in recognition of her efforts to promote relations between the Czech Republic and Taiwan in the areas of trade, culture, and technology.
The speaker also held talks with President Tsai Ing-wen yesterday during which she stressed her desire to "deepen bilateral cooperation on all fronts." Speaking during the meeting, Marketa Pekarova Adamova said her trip is also "aimed at showing support towards Taiwan's democratic system" and to demonstrate the Czech Republic's willingness to engage in closer two-way ties.
Adamova says the Czech Republic's "long-standing and stable" Taiwan policy...is rooted in the shared values of freedom, democracy and human rights and those bonds have been renewed through their partnership in helping Ukraine refugees.
Adamova, who heads the Chamber of Deputies, also reiterated her government's stance that it was in the interests of all democracies in the world and global security that peace, stability, prosperity were maintained in the Taiwan Strait.
