Yesterday, Taiwan opened a de facto embassy in Lithuania.
“The Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania officially commences its operations in Vilnius on Nov. 18, 2021. This blessed opening will charter a new and promising course for bilateral relations between Taiwan and Lithuania,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement yesterday.
“The first representative appointed to this new office will be Mr Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), currently our chief of mission in Latvia. His new title and responsibilities will immediately take effect on the day that he assumes his official duties in Lithuania,” it added.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
There is tremendous potential for cooperation between industrial sectors, including semiconductors, lasers and financial technology, it said.
“Taiwan will cherish and promote this new friendship based on our shared values,” it added.
China demanded in August that the Baltic state withdraw its ambassador to Beijing and recalled its ambassador in Vilnius after Taiwan announced that its office in the city would be called the “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania.”
The names of other Taiwan offices in Europe and the US use “Taipei,” to avoid referring to the nation itself, which angers China.
Beijing has also been angered by Lithuania’s decision to open its own representative office in Taiwan, although a definitive date has yet to be set.
China’s dispute with Lithuania over Taiwan has also drawn in the US, which has offered its support to Vilnius to withstand Chinese pressure.
Many other countries maintain de facto embassies in Taipei, including several of Lithuania’s fellow EU member states, as well as Britain, Australia and the US.
Meanwhile, the Lithuanian government has repeatedly affirmed its decision to open a representative office in Taiwan, despite the powerful pressure campaign put on by Beijing.
Lithuania’s office in Taiwan is expected to be established early next year, Lithuanian Minister of the Economy and Innovation Ausrine Armonaite said when receiving a visiting delegation from Taiwan last month.
Former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) has been invited by Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis to attend a democracy forum in Vilnius today and tomorrow, and Chen would deliver a speech titled “Taiwan as a Litmus Case for Democracy” tomorrow, the ministry said on Monday.
Chen visited Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation in Poland before heading to Lithuania, according to the ministry.
Additional reporting by Lin Chia-nan
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
RSS