A delegation composed of ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers is scheduled to visit Japan next month to promote parliamentary exchange and push for Taiwan’s bid to join a regional trade block, DPP Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (???) said Monday.

Kuo, who heads the East Asia Parliamentary Friendship Group, said several members of the group, including the DPP’s Mark Ho (???) and Lin Ching-yi (???), are set to depart for Japan on Aug. 4 on a visit aimed at enhancing parliamentary exchange and pay their respects to former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated during an election campaign event earlier this month.

The main purposes of the visit are to exchange views on issues with Japanese parliamentarians, including Taiwan’s bid to join the Japan-led Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and a proposal for a Japanese version of the Taiwan Travel Act, which was signed into law by then United States President Donald Trump in 2018.

The Act, which serves as a follow-up to the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, allows high-level visits between Taiwanese and U.S. government officials.

Kuo said he drafted a Japanese version of the Act in the hope of making substantive progress in relations between the two countries during exchanges with Japanese parliamentarians.

Mourning the loss of Abe is also a high priority on the delegation’s itinerary in Japan, Kuo said.

Abe died on July 8 at the age of 67 after he was shot twice in the morning during a campaign speech on a street in Nara, near Osaka, ahead of the Diet’s upper house elections in Japan, which took place July 10.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel