The European Commission said it does not consider the opening of a Taiwanese representative office in Lithuania a breach of the EU’s “one China” policy, after Beijing downgraded its diplomatic ties with Vilnius because of the move.
“We have made clear in contacts with China and in public statements that this is predominantly a bilateral matter between China and Lithuania, but also since the summer, the EU has stood by Lithuania in the face of sustained coercive measures from China,” a European Commission spokesperson said on Sunday.
China downgraded diplomatic ties with Lithuania on Sunday, after Taiwan opened a “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania” in the nation’s capital on Thursday.
Photo: AFP / Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Taiwan’s representative offices in countries without formal relations mostly use the word “Taipei,” to avoid referring to the nation itself, which angers China.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte on Sunday said that the opening of the representative office, which does not have formal diplomatic status, should not have come as a surprise to anyone.
“Our government’s program says Lithuania wants a more intense economic, cultural and scientific relationship with Taiwan,” she said. “I want to emphasize that this step does not mean any conflict or disagreement with the ‘one China’ policy.”
Lithuanian lawmaker Zygimantas Pavilionis was quoted by the Baltic News Service as saying that the more pressure Beijing asserts on Lithuania, the more it would repel the free and democratic world.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday praised Lithuania for its “moral courage” in allowing Taiwan to open the representative office, despite mounting pressure from China.
Wu also denounced China’s reaction as “rude and unreasonable.”
The opening of the office is meant to enhance Taiwan’s relations with the Baltic state on various fronts, including economic, trade and cultural exchanges, he said on the sidelines of a legislative session.
Asked by lawmakers if the next step for Taiwan would be to seek to establish official diplomatic relations with Lithuania, Wu said that his ministry’s priority is to promote closer bilateral relations.
Wu said the office had just opened, and the next step for his ministry would be to lay the foundation for further practical exchanges between the two countries.
“Establishing official diplomatic relations is currently not the main focus of our work,” he said.
Taiwan has 15 diplomatic allies, and only one of them, the Holy See, is in Europe.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS