Tokyo, June 28 (CNA) Vice Premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) on Wednesday paid a visit to Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary-general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, at the party's headquarters in Tokyo.
Speaking during the meeting, Motegi said that Taiwan is an extremely important partner to Japan and a precious friend with shared values such as freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, adding that the two countries have close economic relationships and regular personnel exchanges.
Motegi said while he was serving as Japan's foreign minister in 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic was bringing suffering to people all over the world, and that he is still grateful to Taiwan for its donation of 2 million masks and various medical resources to Japan at that time.
Japan also donated around 4.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan, Motegi noted, adding that around the same time he also received a warm letter from Cheng expressing his hope that the Japanese people were managing to cope with the challenging situation.
Cheng expressed gratitude to Japan for its donation of the 4.2 million vaccine doses, pointing out that the figure accounts for about 20 percent of Taiwan's population.
Echoing Motegi's views, Cheng added that Taiwan and Japan have shared values and extremely close trade ties, and also face common geopolitical challenges.
Most importantly, the two countries have a shared vision, Cheng noted, saying that at the recently concluded G7 summit in Hiroshima, the world's wealthiest democracies laid out a strategy of "de-risking, not de-coupling" from China.
"De-risking" refers to reducing reliance on China's supply chains, without completely isolating it.
Interestingly however, the word "coupling" is a suitable way to characterize the relationship between Taiwan and Japan, Cheng said, adding that this means the two countries should work together on combining Japan's technical expertise and R&D capabilities with Taiwan's manufacturing capabilities, for example on developing semiconductors, green energy and low-carbon transformation.
On Wednesday afternoon, Cheng also visited contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s 3DIC R&D Center in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture.
Cheng is currently leading a delegation of economics officials on a visit to Tokyo from June 26-29 to conduct exchanges in energy, net-zero emissions and 5G (fifth generation) wireless cellular technology.
Cheng is the second-highest official in the executive branch to have visited Japan since the severance of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Japan in 1972, according to Taiwanese officials.
In July 2022, Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) visited Tokyo to pay his respects to former Japanese Prime Minister Shizo Abe, who died after being shot twice during a campaign event in Nara, Japan on July 8 last year.
