The 11th Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy is set to get underway in Taipei, Taiwan Oct. 25, spotlighting the government’s commitment to strengthening cooperation among like-minded partners to resist authoritarianism.
Co-hosted by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and the U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy, the three-day event gathers around 300 democracy activists, experts, policymakers and donors from 70 countries. They will discuss countermeasures against today’s authoritarian challenges and how to foster democracy, the WMD said.
Describing Taiwan as a thriving and vigorous democracy, the WMD said its successful model was crucial to global defense of such ideas, infrastructure and principles. The decision to choose Taiwan as the site of the assembly reaffirms the international community’s commitment to stand with Taiwan, the WMD added.
President Tsai Ing-wen has been invited to deliver opening remarks, while a conversation between Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and Ukraine’s Parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee Chair Oleksandr Merezhko will be held at a dinner event. Other high-profile participants include Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Chair of the World Movement for Democracy’s Steering Committee Maria Ressa and The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum.
Launched in 1999, the WMD is a global network of democrats who cooperate to promote democracy. The NED serves as the World Movement Secretariat. (DL-E)
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