Former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) interacted with international dignitaries at Pope Francis’ funeral in St Peter’s Square yesterday as President William Lai’s (賴清德) envoy.
The Vatican is one of 12 UN members to maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has previously said it was in talks with the Vatican on Lai attending the pope’s funeral, Lai on Wednesday announced that Chen would be his envoy to the event instead.
Photo courtesy of the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Holy See via CNA
Neither the ministry nor the Presidential Office elaborated on why Lai was not attending the event in person.
Chen is a Catholic and has been to the Vatican several times before.
Speaking in a media interview on the Facebook page of the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Holy See, Chen said he would do his best to have “good interactions” with other countries whose leaders were also going to the funeral.
Taiwan has good relations with many like-minded countries, and Chen “will seize the opportunity to have a good chat, even if it is just a few words, that’s important, which is an opportunity to increase friendly relations,” he was paraphrased as saying.
Before taking his seat, Chen held brief exchanges with several attending dignitaries, including former US president Joe Biden, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya and Paraguayan Chamber of Deputies Speaker Raul Luis Latorre Martinez, the embassy said.
Chen was seated between Mauritius’ envoy on his left, and the delegations from Thailand, Syria and Singapore on his right, the embassy added.
Chen said he believed that under the leadership of the next pope, Taiwan would continue to work with the Vatican “to achieve the best development in all aspects and jointly promote regional peace and world stability.”
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