Taiwan has not received a request to change the name of its de facto embassy in Lithuania, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday, after a report that Lithuanian officials were discussing whether to ask Taiwan to modify the name.
Separately, a senior US administration official said that Washington had not pressured the Baltic state to change course, following a Financial Times report last week that said the US had suggested the name change.
Taiwan last year opened the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania, without using the word “Taipei” as it has in other countries.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Beijing, angered by the move, downgraded its diplomatic relationship with Vilnius and pressed multinationals to sever ties with Lithuania or face exclusion from its market.
Modifying the Chinese version of the representation name to refer to “Taiwanese people” rather than to Taiwan was last week proposed by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis to President Gitanas Nauseda as a way to reduce tensions with China, sources said.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said there has been no request to change the name.
“Neither our country’s Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania nor the foreign ministry has ever received a request from the Lithuanian government to change the Chinese or English name,” it said.
The office’s name was set during bilateral consultations and there has been no change in Taiwan and Lithuania’s positions that they would continue to enhance relations, the ministry added.
“Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners who share the values of freedom and democracy,” it said.
“Our country will continue to work with international democratic allies to support Lithuania; even in difficult circumstances, Taiwan will continue to demonstrate the resilience and perseverance of a democratic country,” it added.
Since Vilnius’ allowed Taiwan to open the office, Lithuanian officials have complained of Chinese retaliation, and Washington has stepped up economic and diplomatic support for the Baltic country.
The senior US official said that the US government had not pressured Lithuania to reverse course after its decision last year to refer to Taiwan in the name of the office.
“It is their right to make these decisions as a sovereign nation. The suggestion that we would be pressuring them to somehow change the name is fundamentally at odds with our entire position,” the official said.
“I have not seen at any point, even under consideration let alone being deployed in any sort of official messaging, some sort of threat about a limit to what [support] we may be able to offer unless somebody changed course. That’s not even been on the table,” the official said.
“European solidarity” on the issue was crucial, the official added.
‘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
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
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
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS