Wed, Mar 08, 2023 page3

• US-Lithuania statement backs Taiwan

  CLOSE COOPERATION: Officials said Lithuania’s robust economic partnership with Taiwan and its meaningful participation in international fora would be bolstered

  • By Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter
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  The US and Lithuania on Monday issued a joint statement supporting economic ties between Taiwan and Lithuania, and Taipei’s international participation.

  The statement was published after a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis at the US Department of State in Washington.

  Blinken and Landsbergis pledged to “strengthen Lithuania’s robust economic partnership with Taiwan, support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international fora and deepen people-to-people ties with Taiwan,” the statement said.

  

  Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis, right, speaks as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, front left, listens during a meeting at the US Department of State in Washington on Monday.

  Photo: AFP

  Lithuania and Taiwan’s joint development projects in semiconductors, lasers and other areas are welcomed, it said.

  Blinken called Lithuania “a model for other countries” as it withstood China’s political and economic coercion, adding that the US would continue to side with the central European country.

  The coercion refers to a series of political and economic sanctions Beijing imposed after Lithuania agreed to open the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius.

  The office, which opened in November 2021, explicitly referred to “Taiwan” instead of “Taipei,” as is common practice to placate Beijing.

  Blinken and Landsbergis stressed the importance of maintaining close cooperation “to uphold the rules-based international order,” the statement said.

  They also reiterated their commitment to “advance a common vision for an Indo-Pacific region that is free and open, connected, prosperous, secure and resilient,” it said.

  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked the two leaders for their support in a statement yesterday, adding that Taiwan “is happy to work with like-minded countries around the world to maintain the rules-based international order.”

  Separately, Taiwan has been calling on European countries to start bilateral investment agreement talks, but so far no concrete progress has been made, Department of European Affairs Director Vincent Yao (姚金祥) told a news conference at the ministry in Taipei.

  Working groups from Taiwan and the EU were formed in 2017 to discuss a negotiation framework for such agreements, but negotiations have not begun, despite the European parliament’s repeated calls for the European Commission to do so, Yao said.

  While negotiations have proven difficult, Taiwan is seeking “more creative measures” to deepen economic ties with the EU in fields such as regulatory integration, tax cooperation and supply chain security, he said.

  In other developments, Marketa Pekarova Adamova, speaker of the Czech Republic’s Chamber of Deputies, on Monday wrote on Twitter that close cooperation with Taiwan is in her nation’s interest.

  Adamova — writing in Czech — criticized the approach of Czech President Milos Zeman, who is to be succeeded by Petr Pavel in August.

  Zeman’s attempt to “cover up the complete failure of his servile policy toward China” is an insult to Taiwan, she wrote.

  Zeman in 2014 said that “Taiwan would soon be peacefully unified by China” and was against Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil’s visit to Taiwan in 2020, calling it “boyish provocation.”
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