The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday announced that it has decided to close the nation's representative office in Belarus, citing the former communist country's opposition to Taiwan's bids to participate in international bodies such as the UN and the World Health Organization (WHO).
MOFA Spokesman Michel Lu (呂慶龍) said yesterday that the Taipei Economic and Trade Mission in Minsk, Taiwan's de facto embassy in Belarus, will be closed with immediate effect, due to its political and economic ineffectiveness.
The function of the Belarus representative office will be taken over by the Russian representative office in Moscow.
One of the main reasons for the closure of the mission, Lu said, was Belarus' opposition to Taiwan's bids to join the UN and WHO.
"When Taiwan establishes a representative office in a non-allied country, we hope this country will not oppose Taiwan's international participation, even if it cannot openly voice support for the nation's entry to the UN and WHO," Lu said. "Belarus did not avoid the issue. It went along with China in openly opposing Taiwan's bids to join the UN and WHO. This is one of the most important reasons why we shut down the mission office there," he said.
Taiwan and Belarus reached a mutual agreement in 1996 to establish economic and trade offices in each other's territoties. Taiwan went ahead and opened its economic and trade office in Minsk. However, Belarus has not opened an office in Taiwan.
Lu said yesterday that the annual bilateral trade volume between Taiwan and Belarus ranged between US$20 million and US$30 million, which was an insignificant amount to Taiwan's economy.
"Improvement on mutual relations was limited. That's why we decided to close down the representative office," the spokesman said.
Lu said that the ministry evaluates the performance of all of its representative offices in non-allied countries.
In addition to mutual economic, trade and personnel exchanges, these countries' stance on Taiwan's international participation is a major consideration in gauging whether it is necessary to maintain the operation of the mission.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS