Pekarova Adamova also visited South Korea during her trip to Asia. Photo credit: Marketa Pekarova Adamova, via Facebook.
Taipei, March 30 (CTK) – Czech lower house chair Marketa Pekarova Adamova (TOP 09) yesterday ended her visit to Taiwan, where she met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and PM Chen Chien-jen, and signed a memorandum on interparliamentary cooperation, according to spokesman Martin Churavy.
Pekarova Adamova also visited South Korea during her trip to Asia.
In the past days, Pekarova Adamova’s trip to Taiwan has been criticised by China, which considers Taiwan its province.
While meeting the Taiwanese president, Pekarova Adamova said the Czech Republic and Taiwan were close partners with similar values - freedom, democracy and protection of human rights. She said she had thanked the president for financial aid to the Czech Republic to help manage the refugee wave resulting from the war in Ukraine.
Pekarova Adamova also met the Taiwanese prime minister. She said they had agreed that although both countries have to live close to an authoritarian power, the best solution to the problems shared by both states was solidarity and cooperation.
On Tuesday, Pekarova Adamova gave a speech in the Taiwanese parliament, the central theme of which was the historical parallels with the events in Czechoslovakia in 1968, when the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact armies invaded the country.
“I would like to assure you that we are with you now and will continue to be with you. In all circumstances. Because you are with us, and we are with you,” concluded her speech. She then received Taiwan’s highest parliamentary decoration from the speaker of the Taiwanese parliament.
The two parliament chairs also signed a declaration on interparliamentary cooperation.
“The purpose of the declaration is to affirm our mutual will to deepen our friendship through mutual contacts on all levels and exchange of expert know-how in the areas where we can learn the most from each other,” said Pekarova Adamova.
At the National Taiwan University, Pekarova Adamova attended a conference on the resilience of democratic institutions. The university also hosted a photo exhibition entitled “Vaclav Havel: Politics and Conscience”, in memory of the first post-Communist president of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic.
“Vaclav Havel has inspired me and millions of people around the world, and the free and democratic world would have a much harder time without him,” said Pekarova Adamova in a speech to the university students.
She was accompanied by a large delegation consisting of politicians, business figures, and representatives of ministries, as well as science and research institutes, cultural institutions and Czech regions and cities.
The group signed five memoranda of cooperation. The visit also saw the opening of the Czech Hub in Taipei and an agreement to establish a Centre for the Strengthening of Supply Chain Resilience.
The Chinese Embassy in the Czech Republic has strongly condemned Pekarova Adamova’s visit to Taiwan, and urged the Czech Republic to comply with the one China principle.
“There is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an indivisible part of Chinese territory. The government of the People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government representing all of China,” the embassy wrote on its website.
The Czech Republic, like most other countries, complies with the principle of one China and officially only recognises continental China. Although it does not maintain official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, however, the two countries cooperate in many areas.
During her trip to Asia, the lower house chair also visited South Korea, where she discussed the automotive industry, modern technology, and possible deliveries of South Korean medicines to the Czech Republic.
In Seoul, she met South Korean PM Han Duck-soo and her counterpart Kim Jin-pyo.