A delegation from the Lithuanian Committee on National Security and Defense is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan for a six-day visit today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The nine-member delegation is headed by committee chairperson Laurynas Kasciunas and Lithuanian Parliamentary Group for Relations with Taiwan vice chair Dovile Sakaliene, the ministry said in a statement.
During the delegation’s stay until Saturday, its members are to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and other senior government officials including National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄).
Photo: Reuters
They would also visit the Mainland Affairs Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of National Defense, the statement said.
The lawmakers would meet with local defense and security think tanks to discuss the cross-strait situation and exchange views on the hybrid security threat Taiwan and Europe are facing, and to gain a better understanding of Taiwan’s all-out defense program, it added.
Other members of the delegation include Lithuanian lawmakers Audronius Azubalis, Eugenijus Sabutis, Edita Rudeliene, Ieva Pakarklyte and their aides, the ministry said.
The trip comes following four deputy ministerial-level visits last year: by Lithuanian Vice Minister of the Economy and Innovation Karolis Zemaitis in September, his predecessor Jovita Neliupsiene on June 12, Vice Minister of Agriculture Egidijus Giedraitis on June 22 and Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Agne Vaiciukeviciute on Aug. 6, it said.
As Lithuania’s ties with Taiwan have improved, the Baltic state has come under heavy political and economic pressure from Beijing over the name of Taiwan’s office there — the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania.
Taiwan typically names its overseas representative offices “Taipei Economic and Cultural Office” or “Taipei Representative Office,” in keeping with the host countries’ preference to avoid any language that would imply Taiwan is a separate country from China.
Beijing has punished Lithuania for the inclusion of “Taiwanese” in the name of Taiwan’s office, seeing such moves as encouraging formal independence.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS