Also included were Renata Alt, head of the Bundestag committee on human rights and humanitarian aid, and Ulrich Lechte, a spokesperson for the FDP parliamentary group.
Before leaving for the island, Strack-Zimmermann was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying the visit was a show of “solidarity” with Taiwan at a time when Taipei was under increasing military pressure from Beijing.
The group will visit the island’s Human Rights Museum and will exchange views with local think tank experts on cybersecurity and persistent military threats from Beijing, as well as other issues of mutual concern, a legislative source said on Monday.
According to the source, the delegates were also expected to visit Hsinchu Science Park, where the world’s largest contract chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co is headquartered, to understand supply chain conditions in Taiwan.
The group met Taiwan’s legislature speaker Yu Shyi-kun and Premier Su Tseng-chang on Monday, the source said.
Yu thanked the FDP for supporting Taiwan’s democracy and the rights of its people to decide their own fate, according to the island’s semi-official Central News Agency.
The FDP, which holds about one-eighth of the seats in the Bundestag and is a junior partner in the German coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, is believed to take a tougher line on Beijing than Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, CNA reported.
In May 2021, the party removed the one-China policy from its campaign platform ahead of September’s general elections, affirmed Taiwan’s democracy and freedom, and encouraged Germany and the EU to expand their engagements with Taiwan.
The Lithuanian parliamentary group arrives in Taiwan on Monday. Photo: CNA
Meanwhile, the visiting Lithuanian group is headed by Laurynas Kasciunas, chair of the national security and defence committee, and Dovile Sakaliene, vice-chair of Lithuanian parliamentary relations group with the Republic of China (Taiwan), Taiwan’s foreign ministry said.
It said the delegation included lawmakers Audronius Azubalis, Eugenijus Sabutis, Edita Rudeliene, Ieva Pakarklyte and their aides.
In addition to meeting senior officials – including heads of the defence ministry and the Mainland Affairs Council, which charts cross-strait policy – the group would talk with local defence and security think tanks to learn about the latest cross-strait situation, the ministry said.
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Taiwanese supporters queue up to buy Lithuanian rum held up by mainland China
It said among the major topics of interest to the group were discussions about the hybrid security threat now faced by Taiwan and Europe and Taiwan’s all-out-defence programme.
The latest visit follows four high-profile deputy-ministerial-level trips from Vilnius last year, including by Lithuania’s vice-minister of economy and innovation Karolis Zemaitis in September; his predecessor Jovita Neliupsiene on June 12; vice-agricultural minister Egidijus Giedraitis on June 22, and deputy transport minister Agne Vaiciukeviciute in August.
Taiwan has rapidly grown closer to Lithuania after the two sides agreed to swap representative offices last year in a move that infuriated Beijing, which in turn retaliated by reviewing ties with Vilnius and imposing trade sanctions on the Baltic state.
The latest visits by the German and Lithuanian groups are expected to draw angry protests from Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the self-ruled island and has repeatedly warned other countries against having official contact with Taipei.
