Taiwan and Japan plan to work together to make the Indo-Pacific region more prosperous and contribute more to the global community. That was the word from President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday, when she met with a visiting delegation from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The delegation is led by Masanobu Ogura, a lawmaker in Japan's House of Representatives. The delegation has already met with other senior government officials, like Premier Su Tseng-chang, during their five-day visit.
President Tsai says that Japan and Taiwan have a close friendship that benefits both parties. She says that the two countries have demonstrated their support for each other throughout the pandemic.
Tsai adds that she met with former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in March, and that they agreed that both countries are heavily invested in each other's prosperity and security.
Tsai also mentioned Taiwan's bid to join the CPTPP, an international trading bloc in the Indo-Pacific region. Taiwan applied to join the CPTPP last September, and Tsai says Taiwan is still trying to win over the vote and gather support from the current members.
Japan is part of the CPTPP and has the largest economy of all the bloc's members.