Between 15 and 19 October 2018, IVO’s president Grigorij Mesežnikov visited Republic of China (Taiwan) as a member of a group of experts working in European think tanks. All of the delegation members were experts in European and Asian affairs. Ambassador James Moran (UK) has previously served as EU Ambassador to Egypt, Jamaica, Jordan, and Yemen. Other members of the delegation included Sylvia Hartleif, Leader of the Foreign Policy Team of the European Commission’s European Political Strategy Center (EPSC), Xavier Nuttin, Senior Associate and Advisory Board Member of the European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS), John Seaman, Research Fellow at the Centre for Asian Studies of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), and Lucrezia Poggetti, Research Associate at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) in Germany.

The visit gave the European scholars a deeper understanding of the most recent developments in Taiwan’s politics, foreign policy, economy, democracy, culture, and relations with China, as well as in the area of Asia-Pacific security. The delegation visited the Legislative Yuan (parliament) the National Security Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the Mainland Affairs Council. 

European scholars also attended seminars and round tables; they met with scholars from think tanks in Taiwan to further strengthen bilateral cooperation and exchanges. European experts with their Taiwanese partners reviewed the perspectives of the EU and individual member states’ cooperation with Taiwan in a number of areas (economy, culture, civil society development, information security, etc.). Visit helped to promote the exchanges between European and Taiwanese think tanks, and created an opportunity for scholars on both sides to discuss global and regional developments.