Foreign Minister Joseph Wu presents a thermo featuring a beer-like tag with a Formosan black bear to German Parliament Taiwan Friendship Group Ch... Foreign Minister Joseph Wu presents a thermo featuring a beer-like tag with a Formosan black bear to German Parliament Taiwan Friendship Group Chair Klaus-Peter Willsch. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) welcomed the German Parliament Taiwan Friendship Group delegation with a banquet on Tuesday (Oct. 4).

During the dinner, Wu gifted the group’s chair Klaus-Peter Willsch a thermos featuring a Formosan black bear tag as a token of friendship. The delegation’s trip to Taiwan marks the first parliamentary visit from Germany in three years.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Wu highlighted China’s attempts to interfere with Taiwan’s international participation efforts and military provocations, especially after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit. He said the German government and parliament have shown strong support for Taiwan, which is further demonstrated by the delegation’s visit despite China’s threats.

Wu thanked the delegation and hoped both countries would continue to deepen bilateral collaboration and preserve freedom and peace across the Taiwan Strait and in the Asia-Pacific region.

Willsch said at the event that the Taiwan Friendship Group had been planning a visit for a long time, but the plans were delayed first because of the COVID-19 pandemic and then because of elections in Germany. These only highlighted the preciousness of the group’s chance to visit, however, and gave the group a way to actively show its support of Taiwan.

During the banquet, both sides discussed free trade between Taiwan and Germany, both countries’ traditional and renewable energy issues and policies, and the Taiwan Strait’s current situation.

The German parliamentary delegation poses for a photo at the MOFA banquet. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs photo)

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