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
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
RSS