Taiwan congratulates U.K.'s new prime minister

Taipei, July 6 (CNA) President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has congratulated Labour Party leader Keir Starmer on becoming Britain's new prime minister after his party's landslide election win.

In a post on social media on Friday night, Lai offered his congratulations to Starmer and said he looked forward to "work[ing] together for innovation and global prosperity" in the future.

In a similar move later on Friday, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a press release that it had instructed Taiwan's representative office in the U.K. to convey the sincere congratulations of Taiwan's government and people to the British government and people on the general election.

The Labour Party had secured 411 seats out of 650 seats in the U.K. general election, BBC reported on Friday night (London time).

Starmer was sworn in as prime minister the same day, replacing Rishi Sunak and ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule.

In its release, MOFA said Taiwan looked forward to furthering its cooperation with the new British government in areas of mutual interests.

Taiwan also wishes to work with the U.K. to continue deepening the two sides' bilateral democratic partnership and contributing to peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, the release said.

According to the statement, Starmer visited Taiwan in 2016 and again in 2018 and met with senior Taiwanese officials such as then-Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) and then-Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三).

In addition, a delegation from the Labour Party, led by Lord Leong, who was then the parliament's shadow spokesperson on business and trade, traveled to Taiwan in March and met with former President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the statement said.

It cited the delegation as saying that the Labour Party looked forward to continuing to strengthen bilateral exchanges in the fields of economics, trade, education and culture.