French Assembly thanked for backing Taiwan's global participation

Taipei,(CNA): Taiwan's government has thanked the French National Assembly for adopting a resolution on Monday in support of Taiwan's international participation, following a similar resolution passed by the French Senate in May.

Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in Taipei praised the resolution's passage as "historic" and as demonstrating the concrete support of both chambers of the French parliament for Taiwan's participation in international affairs.

MOFA said Taiwan and France have shared a longstanding partnership characterized by a high level of trust, and based on the shared values of democracy, freedom and human rights.

Passed Monday in a 39-2 vote with 3 abstentions, the non-legally binding resolution calls on the French government to offer concrete support for Taiwan's participation in agencies such as the International Civil Aviation Organization, Interpol, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the World Health Assembly.

After the resolution was passed, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, secretary of state at the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, reiterated the French government's support for Taiwan's participation in international organizations.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's top representative to Paris, François Wu (吳志中), told CNA that the adoption of a pro-Taiwan resolution in the French National Assembly is a "major historical breakthrough" for Taiwan-France relations.

Among the 298 resolutions proposed during the past four and a half years in the French National Assembly, only 54 of them were able to enter the voting stage and only 37 of them were passed and adopted, according to Wu.