President 
Lai Ching-te on Tuesday received Italian Senate Vice President Gian Marco Centinaio, who led a cross-party group of senators and deputies on a visit to Taiwan. Speaking at the Presidential Office, Lai called Centinaio an old friend of Taiwan on his fifth visit and said the group was the largest delegation the Italian parliament has sent to Taiwan and showed its support, CNA reported.
What did Lai say? Lai said that with authoritarianism continuing to expand, only democracies supporting one another can safeguard democracy and peace. He cited Italy's first deployment of the aircraft carrier Cavour to the Indo-Pacific for joint exercises in 2024, and the warships it sent to the region in the two years that followed. He said a bill shielding foreign cultural objects on loan from seizure, passed by Italy's Chamber of Deputies and Senate this year after more than 20 years and five legislatures, would give legal protection to Taiwanese artifacts exhibited in Italy. Italy is Taiwan's fourth-largest trading partner in the European Union, he said, with Italian strength in cars, design and advanced materials complementing Taiwan's semiconductor, information and communications, and electronics manufacturing clusters.
What did Centinaio say? Centinaio told Lai that many Italian lawmakers believe in the friendship between Italy and Taiwan, saying: "We think helping Taiwan is helping the whole world." Describing a delegation drawn from both chambers and from governing and opposition parties as able to represent all of Italy "360 degrees," he said ties should rest on shared interests and exchanges between peoples rather than trade and business alone, CNA reported. He said maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait is the foundation of democracy, and closed with: "Italy is with you, we are with President Lai, Italy is Taiwan's friend."
What happened at the lunch? At a lunch hosted by Legislative Yuan Vice President Chiang Chi-chen, where CNA reported the visitors were served shaved ice as a Taiwanese summer dessert, Chiang thanked the Italian parliament for passing the loan bill in July and said he hoped for more cultural heritage exchanges. He said 74 Italian science and engineering trainees have come to Taiwan under a Taiwan-Europe semiconductor talent programme. Centinaio said his visit two years ago had been to attend Lai's inauguration, and that the law would raise Taiwan's visibility in Italy, where people had mostly associated Taiwan with technology, semiconductors and trade.
Figures referenced: Lai Ching-te. — JudgeMarket.
