terror and postponing deals with Taiwan. Taiwan's leadership was increasingly nervous in the early 21st century. It had to deal with growing isolation around the world because of China's pressure on other countries. In economic terms, it was facing worsening trade relationships with major trading partners. According to Chen-Don Tso, Taiwan was unable to make free trade agreements with them. Its main goal was to reach an explicit partnership with the United States. However, repeated efforts by Taiwan especially in 2003 to 2006 were rejected by Washington, in its quest to improve relations with Beijing. Europe Historical background Bush made his first visit to Europe in June 2001. Bush came under criticism from European leaders for the rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, which was aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. He asserted that the Kyoto Protocol is "unfair and ineffective" because it would exempt 80 percent of the world and "cause serious harm to the U.S. economy". Post September 11, President Bush worked closely with his NATO allies in Europe, to fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, in Afghanistan. However, after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, relations were strained with France and Germany, who strongly opposed the invasion. But President Bush had an excellent relationship with Tony Blair, of Britain, and Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, which took part in the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush began his second term with an emphasis on improving strained relations with European nations. Bush lauded the pro-democracy struggles in Georgia and Ukraine. However, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, both undemocratically elected and fiercely autocratic, received official state visits to the White House, along with increased economic and military assistance. The President had encouraged both leaders to hold free and fair elections early on in his second term, but in fact neither leader carried out significant reforms. Belarus President Bush signed the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004 on October 20, 2004, to impose sanctions on the Belarus government of Alexander Lukashenko. The law expresses the sense of Congress that the Belarusian authorities should not receive various types of non-humanitarian financial aid from the U.S. It also calls for the President to report to Congress on arms sales by Belarus to state sponsors of terrorism and on the personal wealth and assets of senior Belarus officials. President Bush said in his signing statement of October