President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) met with former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss at the Presidential Office on Friday. Truss is the first former U.K. prime minister to visit Taiwan in 27 years, after Margaret Thatcher’s trip in 1996.
Tsai says she hopes the two sides can work towards establishing a bilateral trade and investment agreement to deepen economic and trade cooperation. She adds she hopes Taiwan and the U.K. can increase collaboration on supply chain resilience, network security, and technological innovation.
Tsai thanked Truss for consistently promoting the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait among members of the G7 and NATO while Truss was serving as foreign minister. Tsai also notes they both recently participated in the Copenhagen Democracy Summit and advocated for democratic countries to work together.
Truss says the U.K. understands the need to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. She says democratic countries need to support Taiwan and ensure Taiwan is fully capable of defending itself. Truss once again called for the creation of an “economic NATO” to encourage like-minded countries to work together economically and push back against authoritarianism.