Taiwan would not receive an official invitation to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on Monday next week due to a lack of official ties with the UK, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
However, the government has expressed its wish to mourn the death of the queen on behalf of its people in other “appropriate ways,” Department of European Affairs Director-General Remus Chen (陳立國) said.
“We are still waiting for an official response from the UK side and will make a public announcement once a final confirmation is made,” Chen said.
Photo: CNA
According to the British government’s guidance, only nations with which the UK has diplomatic relations are invited to pay their respects at the state funeral that is to take place at Westminster Abbey at 11am on Monday.
People in Taiwan began paying their respects to the late monarch at the UK’s representative office in Taipei yesterday by signing a condolence book prepared by the office after the queen’s death on Thursday.
A handful of people, including Taiwanese, Hong Kongers and Britons, waited outside the British Office Taipei before the book was opened for members of the public to sign at about 1pm.
Michael Story, a British national and one of the first visitors to the office to sign the book, told reporters that he wanted to thank the queen for her lifelong service to his country.
Most people in the UK have had some sort of encounter with the queen, so her passing “feels more personal,” Story said.
He first saw the queen when he was 11 or 12, and last saw her at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in May when he returned to the UK to visit his family, he said.
“When you are far away from your home country, something like this, a major national event, tends to affect you perhaps even more than it might when you are at home,” he said.
“All my friends in the UK are attending the [queen’s] funeral or some of the arrangements. Here in Taipei I can come and sign the book,” he added.
A woman surnamed Pang (彭), a Hong Konger who has settled in Taiwan, told reporters that she and two other Hong Kongers signed the book to remember the queen for her contributions to the development of the territory.
“We wanted to write something to pay tribute to the queen’s contributions and devotion throughout her life,” Pang said.
Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪), a Taipei-based sales manager who was first in line to sign the book, said he wrote a message about his gratitude for the queen’s contributions to Hong Kong’s prosperity and world peace.
The book can be signed by the public between 1pm and 4pm until Friday at the office on the 26th floor of President International Tower at No. 9-11 Song Gao Road, the British Office Taipei said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) is to visit the office to sign the book this week, Chen said.
The royal family has an online book of condolence, available on the royal Web site, www.royal.uk/send-message-condolence, for those who wish to pay their respects virtually, the office said.
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