Stewart, chairman of the "Taiwan-UK Congress Group".

(Photo by reporter Wang Yisong)

[Reporter Yang Chengyu/Report from Taipei] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs held the "Press Conference of the Visiting Group of the British Council of the British Parliament" on the afternoon of the 22nd. Bob Stewart, chairman of the British Council of Taiwan, strongly praised Taiwan's democratic achievements.

Stewart said directly that Taiwan's democratic achievements in the past 30 years are nothing short of a miracle, ranking better than Britain, which has a history of 800 years of democracy.

He also emphasized that the two major parties in the UK have quite the same views on the Taiwan issue, and they hope to support Taiwan as much as possible.

Stewart said in his speech that he was very happy to lead the delegation to Taiwan.

Taiwan ranks quite high in the Economist's Global Democracy Index, even better than the United Kingdom and the United States.

Taiwan's democratic achievements in the past 30 years are nothing short of miraculous, ranking better than the 800-year-old British democracy.

Taiwan also ranks first in East Asia in the happiness index.

Taiwan is at the forefront of both democracy and autocracy, demonstrating the strong democratic values ​​that Britain also shares.

In addition, Taiwan has also looked beyond Asia and provided great assistance to Ukraine.

He also thanked Taiwan for its performance during the anti-epidemic period, and for leading the world to work together to solve the COVID-19 problem.

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Stewart said that although they do not represent the government, they only represent the Congress, but the members of the group come from the two major parties in the UK, and they agree on the Taiwan issue, and they hope to support Taiwan as much as possible.

At this time, German Federal Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger is also visiting Taiwan. This is the first time in 26 years that a ministerial official from Germany has visited Taiwan.

Regarding whether the UK and Taiwan should conduct ministerial-level mutual visits, Stewart said that he strongly supports ministerial-level officials visiting Taiwan and that the more the better.

The United Kingdom also sent Greg Hands, Deputy Minister of International Trade in charge of trade policy, to Taiwan.

Stewart said that although he cannot influence the decision-making of other European countries, he fully supports more ministerial officials from European countries to visit Taiwan.

He emphasized that Taiwan is an extremely important country to Western countries, and because of this importance, it would be better if more politicians in Europe, the United States, and Canada actually understood the situation in Taiwan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs held the "Press Conference of the Visiting Group of the British Parliament and the British Council of the United Kingdom". Group Chairman Bob Stewart, Deputy Chairman Rob Butler, MPs Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi and Marie Rimmer.

(Photo by reporter Wang Yisong)