European and US politicians congratulated Taiwan on the opening of a representative office in Lithuania.
It is the nation’s only overseas representative office named “Taiwan” in Europe and the second one after the Taiwan Representative Office in Somaliland, which opened last year.
Taiwan’s other missions in countries with which it does not have diplomatic relations use the name “Taipei.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Upon its opening, Vytautas Landsbergis, the first president of the Republic of Lithuania, visited the office and talked with Representative to Lithuania Eric Huang (黃鈞耀).
“The Taiwanese Representative Office in #Lithuania has opened today! We are very happy this day has come!” Lithuanian Minister of the Economy and Innovation Ausrine Armonaite wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
“It is important to state that opening this #Taiwan office is fully in line with the #EU’s One China Policy. The EU has never signed on to the #PRC’s One China Principle. Big difference. We must not allow Beijing to impose their view,” German Member of the European Parliament Reinhard Butikofer, who chairs the parliament’s delegation for relations with China, wrote on Twitter.
Photo: AFP
“Looking forward to developing all possible ties, despite that some big neighbors are very angry! That is their big mistake!” Lithuanian Member of the European Parliament and former Lithuanian prime minister Andrius Kubilius wrote.
“Our global community of democracies is strengthened when we lead with our values,” US Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the US Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations, wrote on Twitter, lauding Lithuania’s leadership for standing up for “democracy from Taipei to Minsk.”
“I’m glad to see #Lithuania open its #Taiwan Relations Office. Free nations around the world must stand by Taiwan as a model of democracy in the #IndoPacific, & must defend one another from #CCP [Chinese Communist Party] pressure,” US Senator Jim Risch wrote, while referring to a pertinent resolution he introduced.
Risch and US Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, on Nov. 5 introduced a resolution that commends Lithuania for strengthening ties with Taiwan, and encourages nations around the world to support Vilnius and confront Chinese coercion.
China condemned the move.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) on Thursday said that despite China’s strong objection and repeated warnings, the Lithuanian government still allowed Taiwan to establish the office, which has flagrantly violated the “one China principle” and Lithuania’s own political commitments when building ties with China.
China will take whatever it needs to defend the integrity of its territory and sovereignty, he said, adding that Lithuania should be responsible for whatever costs generated by its action.
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