Lithuania plans to open a representative office in Taiwan by the end of the year, Lithuanian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Mantas Adomenas said, reflecting a desire for the two countries to forge closer ties.
A vice minister-level official from the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Ministry of Economy and Innovation would attend the opening ceremony, Adomenas said in an online interview earlier this week.
“Opening an office [in Taiwan] is an important event,” he said.
Although no decision has been finalized on which official would attend, Adomenas, who has visited Taiwan several times, said he would like to visit the “lovely” nation again, describing Taiwan as “a very mature and very vibrant, dynamic democracy.”
The representative office could be named the “Lithuanian Representative Office” or the “Lithuanian Trade Representative Office,” but the title was still being discussed within the government, he said.
The Lithuanian Ministry of Economy and Innovation would run the office after it opens, Adomenas said.
“We very much hope we can develop mutually respectful relations with Taiwan and deepen economic and cultural relations,” he said.
Adomenas said that he expected the office to be organized similarly to Lithuanian embassies in other countries, with four to five officials and some locally hired staff.
As Lithuania and Taiwan do not have diplomatic relations, the Baltic state’s government has to amend laws to “create this new type of entity,” he said.
Once parliament opens its fall session, those amendments would be placed at the top of its agenda for review, Adomenas said, adding that after they are approved, the government would try to open the Taipei office by the end of this year.
On July 20, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) announced that Taiwan would open a representative office in Lithuania to expand its relations with the country and other Central European nations.
The office, to be named “The Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania,” would be located in the capital, Vilnius, Wu said.
It would be the first representative office Taiwan has opened in Europe since it set up an office in Slovakia in 2003, but no specific date has been set for the opening.
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