TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A nine-member bipartisan delegation from the Kosovo-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group has arrived in Taiwan for a week-long visit from March 11-16.

The group will attend the 2023 Parliamentary Openness and Monitoring Forum as well as meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), Legislative President You Si-kun (游錫堃), National Security Council Secretary General Wellington Koo (顧立雄), and other government officials and non-governmental organizations to discuss Taiwan-EU relations, the cross-strait situation, bilateral economic and trade ties, and exchanges in various fields, including science, technology, and education, per a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) press release.

Delegation members include Abdullah Hoti, former prime minister of Kosovo and co-chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China and Kosovo-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group co-chairs Artan Abrashi and Blerta Deliu-Kodra.

This is the first time a parliamentarian delegation from Kosovo has visited Taiwan since it became an independent nation in 2008, MOFA noted, adding that this clearly demonstrates the solidarity, cooperation, and deepening exchanges among “front-line democratic countries.”

The Kosovan Assembly and Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan mutually established the Kosovo-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group" and the Taiwan-Kosovo Parliamentary Group, respectively, on December 20, 2021, MOFA said.

Through parliamentary diplomacy, meaningful Taiwan-Kosovo bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields will hopefully be further deepened, MOFA said. The foreign ministry is happy to see like-minded countries engaging in exchanges and dialogue with Taiwan on the basis of shared values, and with the intention of bolstering close, mutually beneficial partnerships, MOFA said.