President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) says Taiwan hopes to work closely with democratic countries like Germany to fight the spread of authoritarianism. Tsai spoke on Tuesday, when she met with a German parliamentary delegation.
The delegation is composed of a group of Free Democratic Party lawmakers, who arrived in Taiwan on Monday. This is the third time Germany has sent a parliamentary delegation to Taiwan in four months. Tsai says the two countries will continue building stronger ties in the fields of green energy, finance, innovative research, and transformative justice.
Tsai says authoritarianism is growing around the world, and democratic countries need to come together to protect the ideals of freedom and democracy. Tsai adds that Taiwan will resume requiring one year of military service, and it hopes to work more with Germany in the fight for democracy.
The president also thanked the German Parliament for supporting Taiwan's bid for observer status at the World Health Assembly last year. Germany also used its position as leader of the G7 to advocate for peace in the Taiwan Strait when China was conducting military drills in the region last August.