Mr. Watson, Honorable Members of the European Parliament, CALD representatives, Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning!

It is a great honour for me to deliver the opening remarks on behalf of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) and its Chairman, President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan, although the circumstances that prevent President Chen from travelling to Europe to attend this meeting in person, the unreasonable ban on our democratically elected leader's travel to Europe, are regrettable.

Five years ago in December 1999, I had the honour of visiting Brussels and the European parliament along with Chen Shui-bian, and we were gracefully hosted by Hon. Graham Watson and his liberal colleagues in the European Parliament. That was of course before Chen Shui-bian was elected. He has fond memories of his last visit here and would certainly want to come again. We in the DPP have great appreciation for the long-standing support our liberal European friends have extended toward Taiwan, throughout our democratization process and in our struggle to be treated fairly in the international arena.

That is why President Chen takes seriously his role as the Chairman of CALD, and though in the height of our legislative election campaign, I am pleased to join all of you here on his behalf.

On the broader regional level, CALD has also benefited from the active attendance and participation of European friends in a number of conferences, seminars and election monitoring activities over the past few years. Many of you present here today have been witness to the democratic development of our countries, and I must note with gratitude your ongoing support to this process in Asia.

The bringing together of liberal political parties of Asia and Europe not only fosters greater mutual understanding of the political challenges and realities of our continents, but more importantly, we are able to tighten the bonds between like-minded politicians and activists, furthering our common agenda.

Building on the foundation established in the first CALD-ELDR Conference in Seoul, 2002, we can once again discuss and look into the political challenges that we as liberal and democratic political parties face. The good news is that both CALD and ELDR have grown and expanded. Governing member parties of CALD in the Philippines and Taiwan have won elections and maintained their governing position, our member party in Cambodia, the Sam Rainsy Party, made significant gains in the most recent election, and we have also seen similar successes of our friendly parties in Korea and Japan. In Europe, I am pleased to see that ELDR has evolved and expanded into ALDR, with a much greater representation in the European Parliament and certainly stronger influence in European policy making.

This meeting comes shortly after the enlargement of the European Union, and many of us come from Asian countries that are interested in furthering regional integration through FTA's and other multilateral mechanisms. Our areas of the world have become much more liberal in terms of trade and economics, yet the world faces security challenges at unprecedented levels. Countering the looming terrorist threat, dealing with the effects of the war in Iraq and its aftermath, and ensuring basic political freedoms and human rights at the same time, have become an utmost challenge of many political leaders. I am relieved to note that last month EU foreign ministers decided not to lift the weapons ban to China, demonstrating support for Asia's regional stability. Yet this is one among many issues that political leaders will have to continue to examine in the years to come.

Aside from sharing views on policy and ideology, I believe both CALD and ALDR have also benefited from exchanges such as this conference on a very pragmatic execution level. We have over the years shared experience on how to strengthen our respective parties through leadership training, exchanging campaigning techniques and political party reform. The success and usefulness of our past interaction is what brings us here and leads us to want to strengthen our ties further.

I certainly expect this conference to again be both another process and product of enhancing our parties and democracy in our regions. I look forward to the next few days of discussion and a very successful conference!