Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) met with U.K.’s representative to Taiwan, John David Dennis, on Monday to discuss enhancing Taiwan-U.K. relations.
During the meeting, Cho said that Taiwan has excellent wind power resources and hoped for increased support in wind power technology and talent development. Pointing to the vibrant trade relationship between Taiwan and the U.K., he aims for mutual assistance in engineering projects from major energy-producing countries such as the U.K.
Cho also mentioned Taiwan's active participation in the international community and sought the U.K.’s support in Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The CPTPP, one of the world’s biggest trade blocs, is a trade agreement between 11 countries and requires unanimous approval from all member countries to admit new members.
In response, Dennis congratulated Cho on his 100 days in office and reaffirmed that the U.K.'s policy towards Taiwan remains unchanged. Dennis noted that Taiwan and the U.K. have made significant progress in trade, technology, energy, bilingual education, net zero goals, and people-to-people exchanges. As examples, he mentioned that the U.K. and Taiwan are set to sign an Organics Equivalence memorandum of understanding and cited an upcoming visit from His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for the Asia Pacific from the Department for Business and Trade, as well as the participation of 20 British companies at Semicon Taiwan.
Dennis said that the U.K. will become an official member of the CPTPP this year and intends to share its experiences with Taiwan.