Lithuania plans to open a representative office in Taiwan, and leave a Beijing-led alliance with central and eastern European nations, Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT) quoted a lawmaker as saying on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it welcomes countries willing to establish friendly relations with Taiwan, but added that it has no additional information on the matter.
The Lithunian Committee on Foreign Affairs last month agreed that the Baltic nation should leave China’s 17+1 initiative to bolster cooperation between Beijing and 17 European nations, the LRT report said.
Photo: Screen grab from Facebook
“China has aims to take over strategic infrastructure in various countries... Why should we embroil ourselves in these risks?” Lithuanian Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman and former diplomat Zygimantas Pavilionis was quoted as saying in the report.
Estonia, Latvia and several other east European nations are thinking of taking similar steps, he said, adding that Lithuania plans to expand relations with Taiwan by opening an economic office in the country.
Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis told LRT that the cooperation program with Beijing has brought Lithuania “almost no benefits.”
“The 17+1 initiative ... is not useful for Europe; it is dividing Europe, because countries have different opinions on China,” he said.
“I am not saying that we are leaving [the alliance] and that it is the end, but we should consider what is a useful way of building a relationship with China,” he added.
Lithuania is not alone in its reluctance to continue working with China, as evidenced by the Chinese and Central and Eastern European virtual summit held on Feb. 9, during which the three Baltic states, along with Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia, sent ministers instead of their head of state or government.
In April last year, 50 Lithuanian members of parliament, along with more than 200 political and intellectual figures, wrote a joint letter to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda expressing their support for Taiwan to join international organizations and to establish an office in Taiwan.
The move is in line with the promise made by Lithuania’s coalition government in November last year that it would “actively oppose any violation of human rights and democratic freedoms, and will defend those fighting for freedom around the world, from Belarus to Taiwan.”
In Taipei, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) yesterday said that Taiwan is open to making friends with nations around the world and welcomes any move that would deepen Taiwan-Lithuania relations.
However, the ministry has no further information regarding Lithuania’s reported plan to establish a representative office in Taiwan, she said.
As for the Baltic nation’s plan to leave the 17+1 platform, the ministry has no comment, she said.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
RSS