(Left: President Tsai meets Lord Truscott, Right: President Tsai receives a copy of Asian Waters from author Humphrey Hawksley)
From 10-16 August, a delegation of high-level members from UK-based think tanks led by parliamentarian and British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) member Lord Truscott visited Taiwan to strengthen bilateral cooperation in issues related to security and defence. Delegation members included former parliamentarian Jim Murphy MP, Centre for European Reform (CER) Director of Foreign Policy Ian Bond CVO, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Senior Associate Fellow Charles Parton OBE, former BBC correspondent Humphrey Hawksley, Henry Jackson Society founder and Global Britain Programme Director James Rogers and International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Research Fellow for Defence Economics and Procurement Lucie Béraud-Sudreau.
On 12 August, President Tsai met with the delegation to discuss strengthening cooperation in aerospace, naval technology and cyber security. During the meeting, the delegation also talked about the Indo-Pacific strategy, China's sharp power and the situations in Hong Kong and Taiwan. President Tsai stressed that she looks forward to Taiwan and the UK deepening their partnership in all areas under Prime Minister Boris Johnson and expressed hope that delegation members will give Taiwan their full support and continuously upgrade Taiwan-UK relations. During the visit, the delegation also met with Secretary-General of Taiwan’s National Security Council David Tawei Lee, Foreign Minister Joseph Jaushieh Wu and called on the Mainland Affairs Council and held discussions with Taiwanese think tanks, including the National Defense Security Research Institute and Prospect Foundation.
