An Italian delegation visited Taiwan to discuss potential cooperation in the semiconductor sector, Italian Minister for Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso said on Friday.
“I sent a ministry task force in Taiwan, and one also in Seoul, to discuss and illustrate our plan on semiconductors,” Urso said in Pavia, Italy.
Urso said the mission was mostly technical, a sign that Italy is trying to keep the economic and diplomatic tracks as separate as possible.
Photo: Bloomberg
Taiwan has planned to invest about US$400 million in Italy’s chip industry, the Taipei Representative Office in Rome said.
“On semiconductors, Italy has some strategic advantages compared with other EU countries, including manufacturing capacity and research and development,” office head Vincent Tsai (蔡允中) said in an interview.
Tsai, who was appointed to the role in January, said that trade between the two countries increased 13 percent last year, and there are plans to further boost it with the opening of a new representative office later this year in Milan, Italy’s business capital.
China and Taiwan are key trading partners with Italy, which is the third-largest importer of goods from China in the EU, and the fourth-largest exporter of goods to the country, which is a key export destination for luxury brands crucial for its industry.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who came to power less than a year ago, is leaning toward pulling out of an agreement to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which has funded US$900 billion in infrastructure projects globally, people familiar with the government’s thinking said.
Italian officials raised the prospect of withdrawal in talks with Taiwan this week, Bloomberg reported.
Italy is the only G7 country that signed up to the infrastructure plan. The deal agreed in 2019 under then-Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte has not led to deeper integration between Italy and China compared with other EU nations.
Italy’s hawkish turn complicates Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) effort to drive a wedge between European countries eager to retain economic relations with Beijing, and the US, which is implementing increasingly confrontational policies. This puts Italy and the EU in a delicate position between the two superpowers.
“Italy is stuck between a rock and a hard place, and what to do with the cooperation pact is a real diplomatic conundrum for Meloni,” Mercator Institute for China Studies analyst Francesca Ghiretti said in an interview. “Renewing it would send a very difficult message to Washington, but not renewing it would put a strain in relations with China.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
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