Slovenia is unlikely to backtrack from pro-Taiwan policies after Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa leaves office, following his electoral defeat last month, an academic said on Saturday.
Jansa, a populist who presided over warming relations between Taiwan and Slovenia, was ousted in the parliamentary elections last month by political newcomer Rober Golob.
Slovenia is unlikely to make fundamental changes to its Taiwan policy, as improving economic and cultural ties between the countries serves Ljubljana’s interests, Taiwan Study Center in Slovenia director Sasa Istenic Kotar said.
Photo: AFP
Under Slovenia: Safe, Successful, Globally Respected: The Foreign Policy Strategy of the Republic of Slovenia, published last year, the country is committed to devoting special attention to the Indo-Pacific region and deepening its cooperation with democratic countries in the region, Kotar said.
The national diplomatic and strategic policy of Slovenia is anchored to the EU’s strategy, which treats China as a systematic rival and a competitor, she said.
“I believe that the new government will follow the EU’s strategy, and that no major changes will happen,” she said, adding that the country might “keep a low profile so as to avoid angering China.”
Slovenia’s adherence to a “one China” policy and efforts to improve ties with Beijing would also continue, she said.
Kotar recently told the Global Taiwan Institute that Slovenia’s bid to obtain a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council — for which it would need Beijing’s support — does not necessarily sink Taipei’s hope of establishing a representative office in Ljubljana.
Taiwan has representative offices in all but six of the 27 countries that make up the EU — Slovenia, Malta, Cypress, Luxembourg, Estonia and Croatia.
As the Slovenian parliament voted for Taiwan’s diplomatic presence to be called the Taipei trade office, it does not anticipate heavy opposition from Beijing, she said.
In addition, Slovenia’s interest in China has cooled after Beijing’s “16+1” bloc failed to deliver on infrastructure and trade promises, she said, adding that Slovenia’s trade deficits with China have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government considers Taiwan-Slovenia economic cooperation to have great potential, especially in renewable energy, artificial intelligence, technology, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, she said.
“Slovenia’s trade with Taiwan lagged behind that of other central and eastern European countries, and the absence of trade offices is the most glaring obstacle in growing that relationship,” she said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods