《TAIPEI TIMES》 Kosovar delegation in Taipei to meet Tsai, attend forum

By Su Yung-yao and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

A cross-party delegation of parliamentarians led by former Kosovar prime minister Avdullah Hoti is to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen （蔡英文） today after arriving in Taiwan on Saturday evening.

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The eight-member delegation is in Taiwan to attend the Parliamentary Openness and Monitoring Forum tomorrow and on Wednesday.

Parliamentarians from North Macedonia, Romania and other countries would also attend the event, which is being co-hosted by local non-governmental organization Citizen Congress Watch, the US-based National Democratic Institute and the UK-based Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

The delegation from Kosovo would be the largest at the event, and the first from the country to visit Taiwan.

Hoti visited Taiwan in November last year as part of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China Policy.

“We’ve invited experts and academics from several countries, including those in the UK, as well as Indonesia, Kosovo, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Ghana and Pakistan, among others, to participate,” Citizen Congress Watch said. “They will share their experiences with the challenges and trends of parliamentary openness and supervision.”

However, some countries such as Ghana, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are to attend the forum virtually via videoconference to avoid conflict stemming from their lack of diplomatic ties with Taiwan, it said.

The names of participants from some countries would not be made public until after they leave Taiwan, also to avoid conflicts, it added.

Several of the forum’s attendees this year were arranged through the National Democratic Institute, said a source who asked to remain anonymous.

Meanwhile, Saint Lucian Minister of External Affairs, International Trade and Civil Aviation Alva Baptiste is to visit Taiwan this week to meet with Tsai to discuss mutual cooperation projects, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

Baptiste and an accompanying delegation would arrive today and depart on Friday, on what would be his fourth trip to the country, the ministry said in a statement.

Baptiste has for years supported Taiwan’s participation in the international arena, including writing letters to the WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, Interpol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to call for the nation’s participation as an observer, it said.

Taiwan and Saint Lucia established diplomatic relations in 1984, but the ties were broken in 1997 when the Caribbean country switched recognition to Beijing.

In April 2007, Taiwan and Saint Lucia re-established diplomatic relations, and China severed its formal ties with the latter.

Additional reporting by CNA

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES