Tsai Ing-wen to visit European Parliament in Brussels

Brussels, Oct. 10 (CNA) Former President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will travel to Brussels during her planned European tour that begins Saturday and visit the European Parliament, the Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium has confirmed.

This will be the first time a former Taiwanese head of state visits Brussels, home to the headquarters of the European Union and one of the locations of the European Parliament.

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Tsai's office announced earlier this week that the former president will depart Taiwan for the Czech Republic on Saturday and will deliver a speech at the "Forum 2000" conference being held in Prague from Oct. 13-15.

It will be Tsai's first overseas trip since concluding her two four-year terms in office in May.

Taiwan's representative office in the EU and Belgium confirmed to CNA Thursday that in addition to attending Forum 2000, Tsai will also head to Brussels where she will head to the European Parliament for a visit and meet new members of the assembly.

In recent years, the European Parliament has been a strong supporter of Taiwan's democracy, advocating for deeper engagement between the EU and Taiwan.

During her presidency from 2016 to 2024, Tsai advocated the negotiation of bilateral trade and investment agreements with the EU, and got the previous European Parliament to pass several resolutions urging EU administrative institutions to respond with action, to no avail to date.

The new European Parliament, elected in June, began its session in July.