Taipei, Nov. 20 (CNA) Taiwan has a right to hold a referendum on pursuing membership in the United Nations (U.N.) and European Parliament members will call for the European Union (EU) to take the same position as the U.S. and Japan, a visiting European political party leader said Tuesday.
Graham Watson, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the EP, said one of his priorities upon returning to Europe will be "pressing Javier Solana, EU's Minister of Foreign Affairs, to align his position with the positions taken by the U.S. and Japan regarding the way in which Taiwan's application was returned" by the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The U.S. and Japan have strongly rejected Ban's interpretation of U.N. Resolution 2758 that Taiwan is a part of China.
Watson is leading a seven-member delegation on a three-day visit to Taiwan, during which the delegation was scheduled to meet government officials as well as the representatives from both the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the opposition Kuomintang (KMT).
The party leader said that in a few weeks, "you will see in the major newspapers in Brussels a statement signed by EP members from all political parties supporting Taiwan's bid for U.N. membership."
Even if it's not quite the same as the positions adopted by EU member states, it reflects the collective position of Europeans and the EP on such issues, he said.
Regarding Taiwan's U.N. referendum, Watson said that he disagreed with the Americans' view that the referendum was "neither necessary nor helpful" because Taiwan had a legitimate right to exercise this democratic tool.
"What we see in Taiwan... is a logical conclusion of the doctrine that was summed up by Woodrow Wilson in the 1920s regarding the self-determination of peoples. And that doctrine is having implications that Wilson did not even foresee, " he said.
"In a globalized world, we [the EU] need to have relations with everyone. But it's easier to have relations with someone who shares your values, " said Watson, summing up the EU's relations with China and Taiwan.