The Legislative Yuan

Press Release

June 15, 2023

President You meets Italian Senate Vice President Gian Marco Centinaio and the delegation

You Si-kun: Grateful to Senate Vice President Gentinaio for longstanding and unwavering support

Accompanied by Legislators Hsieh Yi-fong, Chiu Chen-yuan, Chen Jiau-hua, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary General Daniel Diann-Wen Tang, Secretary General Lin Jih-jia, Consultant Chou Ya-shu, and Secretariat Director Kung Ping-chieh, President You met with Senate Vice President Gian Marco Gentinaio, Senator Elena Murelli and Italian Economic, Trade and Cultural Promotion Office in Taipei Representative Davide Giglio at 11:30 a.m. on June 15.

On behalf of Taiwan’s congress, President You extended a warm welcome to the delegation. He conveyed condolence and sympathy about the passing of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and about the catastrophic flooding in northern Italy last month. He continued to state that Vice President Gentinaio and Senator Murelli provided longstanding support to Taiwan. Vice President Gentinaio took the initiative to invite 13 senators to send a joint letter to WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in support of Taiwan’s participation in WHA this year. The people of Taiwan are grateful for that.

President You continued to state that he visited Italy in July 1983. It would be 40 years ago in the coming July. He still had vivid memory of the trip with so many photos. Italy is the birthplace of renaissance and makes tremendous contributions to human civilization with the largest number of world heritage sites. As the world’s fifth largest tourist country, the 10th largest trading nation, and a member of G 7, it plays an important role in the world.

President You mentioned about in his hometown Yilan, there is a Camillians St. Mary’s Hospital Luodong with outstanding medical doctors to take care of the health of countless people of Yilan. Therefore, Italy not only makes contributions to the world but also to his hometown Yilan. He hoped that in the future with the assistance of Vice President Gentinaio and Senator Murelli, Taiwan-Italy friendship will be further enhanced.

In his remarks, Vice President Gentinaio thanked President You’s warm hospitality. This marked his third visit. He was excited to visit Taiwan with Senator Murelli. He said that almost all Italians know Taiwan, but there are still a lot of things to do for Taiwan in Italy. His major task is to promote exchanges between Taiwan and Italy to enable more Italians know Taiwan and recognize Taiwan. He has been a member of the Italy-Taiwan Friendship for a decade. During this period of time, he has introduced bills to promote relations between Taiwan and Italy, including the joint letter that President You mentioned to support Taiwan to participate in World Health Assembly, but he thought that he did not do enough. In the future, he hoped to persuade 200 senators to sign the letter, to allow Taiwan with such an exceptional achievement during the pandemic to participate in discussion and share experiences in the World Health Assembly.   

Vice President Gentinaio stated that as a former minister of agriculture and tourism, he hoped to promote Italy’s agricultural products and tourism to more Taiwanese. He hoped to matchmaking bilateral businesses to assist Taiwanese businesses to invest in Italy. He hoped today’s meeting was just the start of future exchanges to promote more cooperation and to further strengthen bilateral relations.