Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Claudia Tenney/Photo courtesy of CNA
Taipei, April 2 (CNA) U.S. congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen arrived in Taiwan Sunday at the head of a congressional delegation on a three-day-trip to strengthen bilateral relations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Monday.
Ros-Lehtinen is chairperson emeritus of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the current chairperson of its subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa. The delegation also includes Representative Claudia Tenney from New York, who serves on the House Financial Services Committee.
Ros-Lehtinen and Tenney are members of Congressional Taiwan Caucus and both supported the passage of Taiwan Travel Act, which promotes meetings and visits between high-ranking American and Taiwanese government officials, according to a MOFA statement.
Ros-Lehtinen is a veteran lawmaker with nearly three decades of experience in the House of Representatives, and was the first Hispanic woman to be elected to Congress. She twice held hearings on "Why Taiwan Matters" in the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs when she served as chair.
She also personally welcomed President Tsai Ing-wen in Miami on June 2016 during the president's transit stop on the way to Central America, it noted.
The delegation will meet with senior officials in Taiwan to discuss issues of mutual interest and how to further strengthen relations between the United States and Taiwan.
This is Ros-Lehtinen's second visit to Taiwan and Tenney's first, according to MOFA.
