By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Chris Wang / Staff reporters
The government yesterday congratulated Myanmar on conducting a peaceful and incident-free election, and expressed its wishes to increase exchanges and cooperation with the country.
As a member of the Asia-Pacific region, the Republic of China (ROC) welcomed the Myanmar government’s policies to open up the country for reform, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson James Chang (章計平) said.
Taiwan could provide Myanmar with assistance through inte
raction along the way of its development, in view of Taiwan’s experiences in cooperating with other Southeast Asian countries in the fields of trade, investment, culture and labor affairs, Chang added.
The ROC would like to enhance bilateral relations with Myanmar on the basis of equality and reciprocity to benefit the people of both countries, Chang said.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its former chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday congratulated Burmese democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi on her party’s overwhelming victory in the parliamentary byelections, calling the result “a victory for Asia’s democratic values.”
“The National League for Democracy’s [NLD] win under the leadership of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi is a victory for Asia’s democratic values,” DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said in a press release.
The DPP, an ally of the NLD in the Liberal International group, also congratulated Burmese for marching forward toward democratization, he added.
The London-based Liberal International, established in 1947, is an international federation of more than 100 political parties around the world.
Tsai also sent her best wishes to Aung San Suu Kyi and her party on the landslide win in the byelections and for “taking the first step toward democracy.”
“The democratic movement [in Myanmar] has developed later than those in other parts of the world. It is even more difficult for a woman to be a catalyst,” Tsai said.
“I sincerely congratulate Myanmar and Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and hope that the country will continue to grow as a robust democracy that upholds human rights, democracy and freedom,” she added.