On October 3rd, Taipei Mission in Sweden held a national day celebration reception at the Sheraton Stockholm Hotel in the evening. Around 200 guests, amongst other Swedish government officials, members of Parliament, the diplomatic corps, think tanks, media, business people, overseas Chinese and students participated in the joyous event.
Ambassador Liao pointed out that the ROC government will continue to play the role of a strong supporter of peace and will follow the commitment of "maintaining the status quo", based on popular opinion and domestic consensus and pragmatically handle cross-strait relations.
Regarding the relationship between Taiwan and Sweden, Ambassador Liao spoke of the positive bilateral economic and trade development in recent years. An example of this is that Taiwan recently opened the market for beef import from Sweden. There have also been many fruitful political and academic exchanges between the two countries. Ambassador Liao asked the Swedish community to continue to support Taiwan's government and development and invited Swedes to go and visit Taiwan.
During the reception Caroline Szyber, Member of Parliament and Chairman of "Swedish Taiwanese Parliamentary Association" was also invited to the stage to hold speech. Szyber talked about her and other members of Parliament active work to help promote and enhance the relationship between Sweden and Taiwan. She also raised the sad fact that the United Nations has long neglected the interests of Taiwan in participating in international organizations.
After the speeches, the Swedish violin master Semmy Stahlhammer and his wife Isabel Blommé performed a few musical pieces.
Taipei Mission in Sweden had also set up a Study & Tourism promotional booth at the venue to encourage Swedish young people to make good use of the scholarship programs provided by our government.