President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of June 19 with a delegation of opposition lawmakers from the Danish Parliament (Folketinget). On behalf of the government and people of the ROC, the president welcomed the visitors to Taiwan and called for a furthering of interaction and cooperative ties to deepen the bilateral friendship.
In remarks, President Ma noted that Member of Parliament Brian Mikkelsen is the chairman of the parliamentary group of the Conservative Party and previously served as Minister for Economic and Business Affairs, Minister of Justice, and Minister for Culture. He is an important parliamentarian leader in his party, the president remarked. Meanwhile, Member of Parliament Martin Geertsen was formerly the mayor of culture and recreation in Copenhagen and is an important leader in the Liberal Party. They have long closely followed the development of cross-strait relations and the ROC's foreign policies, and are very friendly to Taiwan. President Ma remarked that the people and government of the ROC will always remember their friendliness toward Taiwan.
The president also commented that while Denmark and Taiwan are geographically far apart, he met and became friendly with a number of individuals in the Danish private sector 30 years ago when, as deputy secretary-general of the Kuomintang Central Committee, he was responsible for foreign affairs. Among them were Ms. Agnete Laustsen, a member of the Taiwan-Denmark Association, former Taiwan-Denmark Association chairman Hans Thustrup, former parliamentarian Oli Breckmann, and Copenhagen Lord Mayor Frank Jensen. President Ma said that to this day he still stays in close contact with these individuals.
The president stated that Taiwan and Denmark maintain close cooperative relations. For instance, 20 years ago when Taiwan was beginning to develop wind power, it purchased 20 wind turbines from Denmark, and the majority of the wind turbines employed in Taiwan to date have been produced in Denmark. In addition, he said, Denmark has considerable achievements in the development of renewable energy, and has transformed itself from an importer to an exporter of energy, so Taiwan deeply desires to follow in Denmark's footsteps and is planning to make Penghu Taiwan's first low-carbon island.
The president mentioned that since he took office in 2008, the European Parliament on numerous occasions has issued declarations or passed resolutions in support of the signing of an economic cooperation agreement between Taiwan and the European Union (EU) to expand economic and trade dealings between the two sides. In addition, he pointed out, after the EU instituted visa-free courtesies in 2011 for ROC nationals traveling to Schengen countries, the number of Taiwanese visiting Europe has increased rapidly. He said that this move has done much to enhance tourism as well as economic and trade ties between the two sides.
President Ma stressed that he has often looked to Europe for inspiration in the making of policy. For instance, he mentioned, his East China Sea Peace Initiative was inspired by the way European nations shelved their North Sea territorial disputes and instead cooperated to develop the Brent oil fields. With this precedent in mind, Taiwan and Japan were able to resolve a 40-year fisheries dispute, he said.
Also accompanying the visitors was Trade Council of Denmark in Taipei Director Sune Kjeldsen.