The Legislative Yuan

Press Release

October 19, 2022

President You attended 2022 National Day Reception of the Czech Republic

 You Si-kun: Further promotion of bilateral cooperation with Czech Republic helps further Taiwan-Czech relations

Legislative Yuan President You Si-kun attended the 2022 National Day Reception of the Czech Republic held by the Czech Economic and Cultural Office at 6:40 p.m. today. Minister of Foreign Affairs Jaushieh Joseph Wu as well as ambassadors and representatives of other nations were also present to celebrate the auspicious occasion.

President You stated it was an honor to attend the National Day of the Czech Republic. Over the past two years, Taiwan and the Czech Republic have enjoyed extensive and cordial exchanges, making him feel especially close to the Czech Republic, as if the two nations were brothers. On behalf of the Legislative Yuan, President You extended his sincere congratulations and felicitations to the Czech Republic. He continued to note that in 2020, Czech Senate President Miloš Vystrčil led a delegation comprising more than 90 officials to Taiwan, becoming the first sitting Senate President from a nation that does not have diplomatic ties with Taiwan to deliver a keynote speech in Taiwan’s legislative chamber. Senate President Vystrčil conveyed the spirit of the Prague Spring to Taiwan through his “Spring of Democracy” message. The Czech Republic and other democracies have increasingly shown support for Taiwan in the international arena. To the people of Taiwan, these actions are like the blossoms of spring: warm and beautiful.

Since the visit by Senate President Vystrčil’s delegation in 2020, bilateral economic and trade relations have flourished. In October 2021, the two countries signed five MOUs. Just last month, six MOUs were signed to promote cooperation on semiconductor technology, education, higher education, and museum exhibitions. President You continued by sharing that bilateral trade in the first quarter of 2022 had increased by 20 percent compared with that of the same period last year, and by 13 percent in the second quarter, a signal that bilateral relations continue to thrive.

President You then thanked the Czech Senate for the high-level courtesies accorded to the four-member cross-party delegation from Taiwan that traveled to the Czech Republic the previous July. During their stay, the delegation met with six speakers and deputy speakers and 15 parliamentarians of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, as well as six mayors and regional governors. It was an honor, President You said, to have delivered a speech to the full Czech Senate in what was an unprecedented event. In September, he had had the honor of hosting a 12-member delegation led by Senator Jiří Drahoš, Chair of the Czech Senate Committee on Education, Science, Culture, Human Rights, and Petitions. All these interactions symbolize the promising future of bilateral relations.