Taiwan has donated US$5 million to Lithuanian-led reconstruction projects in Ukraine, a Lithuanian government investment agency said on Wednesday.
The funds would be spent rebuilding a school in Borodianka and a kindergarden in Irpin, the Central Project Management Agency said in a statement.
The Lithuanian government has spent 9.8 million euros (US$10.6 million) on the projects and the Taiwanese contribution would be used to purchase educational equipment, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Representative Office in Bratislava via CNA
“Taiwan sees Ukraine as our own image on a different continent. We both face authoritarian regimes which do not shy from using force to impose their world view,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Roy Lee (李淳) said when announcing the donation in Vilnius.
“If one day Taiwan is facing an increased level of military intimidation from China, we will be looking for your assistance as well, just as we are helping Ukraine,” he said.
China last year downgraded its diplomatic ties with Lithuania, and told multinationals to sever ties with Lithuania or face being shut out of the Chinese market, after the opening of a representative office by Taiwan in Vilnius.
In response, the EU launched a challenge at the WTO, accusing China of discriminatory trade practices against Lithuania that it says threaten the integrity of the EU single market.
The challenge was joined by the US, the UK and Australia.
Meanwhile, the National Institute for Cyber Security and the Lithuanian Innovation Agency on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that seeks to mutually boost the digital resilience of both nations.
The MOU was signed by Lithuanian Innovation Agency Director Romualda Stragiene and National Institute for Cyber Security head Ho Chuan-te (何全德) using an external communication adapter during a videoconference.
Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang (唐鳳), who was also present at the ceremony, said the use of the adapter marked a bilateral milestone as it was issued by the Ministry of Digital Affairs and recognized by Lithuania.
In addition to strengthening mutual digital resilience, the memorandum also aims to boost bilateral cooperation and talent exchanges, Tang said.
Tang said she hopes the MOU would advance tangible partnerships between the two nations, which are both on the frontline of opposing authoritarian regimes.
Tang met with Lithuanian Minister of the Economy and Innovation Ausrine Armonaite in January, when they exchanged ideas on topics such as satellite technology, cybersecurity and financial technology, which led to the MOU.
While Tang served as Taiwan’s observer at the ceremony, her counterpart was Lithuanian Vice Minister of Economy and Innovation Karolis Zemaitis.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS