Visiting lawmaker hopes to reopen Norwegian office in Taiwan

Taipei, Nov. 22 (CNA) Norwegian parliamentarian Guri Melby told President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during a meeting in Taipei on Wednesday that reestablishing a representative office in Taiwan would help strengthen bilateral relations.

Melby, Norway's former minister of education and the Liberal Party chairperson, made the comment at the meeting at the Presidential Office, where she also underlined her commitment to championing diplomatic and economic ties between the Nordic country and Taiwan.

Melby noted that she had raised the idea of reopening the representative office in Norway's 169-member parliament, where her party currently holds eight seats.

She pledged to "do what we can to stand with Taiwan and strive for democracy."

The Taipei-based Norwegian Trade Council closed in 2004 while Taiwan shuttered its representative office in Oslo in 2017.

Melby, the second vice chair of the Norwegian Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, has been vocal in her criticism of China's human rights records and threats to Taiwan and neighboring countries.

In a statement published on her party's website prior to her visit, Melby said Norway should reduce its economic dependency on Chinese and other authoritarian regimes and that her country "could have been much clearer in its support for Taiwan."

Melby said during her meeting with Tsai that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had served as a wake-up call for many in Europe about what authoritarian regimes can do and how economic dependence on these regimes had left the continent's countries vulnerable.

At the same time, Melby said, she would continue urging the Norwegian government to support Taiwan's bid to take part in international organizations, especially those tackling such global challenges as climate change.

According to Norwegian media, Melby's visit to Taiwan from Nov. 20-25 is the first time a high-level politician from the country has traveled to Taiwan in 14 years.

She was joined by Fredrik Castens, Malin Eidsvåg Østevik and Solveig Hillestad, all of whom are members of her party, which is known as "Venstre" in Norwegian.

In her remarks, Tsai thanked Melby for her sustained support for Taiwan's international participation and expressed hope that Taiwan and Norway could collaborate on green energy and other fields to "jointly contribute to global development."