The Lithuanian parliament has approved laws to enable the establishment of trade offices in Taiwan and elsewhere, a government official said yesterday.
“Green light for Lithuanian #trade offices around the world! Today the #LT parliament has approved the laws that will enable the establishment of Lithuanian trade offices were [sic] we don’t have our diplomatic representation, including #Taiwan,” Lithuanian Minister of the Economy and Innovation Ausrine Armonaite wrote on Twitter.
For Lithuania, there are many unexplored opportunities in East and Southeast Asia, Armonaite said, adding that it is committed to developing trade and investment ties with Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea and other countries in the region.
The new laws would allow Lithuania to develop closer economic ties with advanced economies, while boosting cooperation in high technology and innovation, she said.
The Lithuanian government earlier this year said it planned to establish a trade office in Taiwan, which is expected to open by the end of the year.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the news.
The two countries would continue to deepen relations based on their shared values of protecting democracy, freedom and human rights, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement.
A delegation of Lithuanian lawmakers is to visit Taiwan in December.
Lithuanian Member of Parliament Matas Maldeikis, chairman of the Parliamentary Group for Relations with Taiwan, on Thursday replied to an invitation by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, saying he and other lawmakers would visit Taiwan in the first half of December.
The establishment of a Lithuanian trade office in Taipei is just the first step in Vilnius’ plan to boost relations with Taiwan, and it would greatly help both countries’ political and economic development, Maldeikis said.
DPP Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉), chairman of the Legislative Yuan’s friendship association with Baltic countries, invited the lawmakers.
Taiwan and Lithuania share common values in democracy and freedom against authoritarianism, Chiu said.
Hopefully, Taiwanese lawmakers would form a delegation to visit Lithuania after the pandemic subsides, he said.
Additional reporting by Lin Chia-nan
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS