Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) met with an Australian lawmaker during a stopover in Australia on his way home from Tuvalu, the lawmaker said in a social media post.
In social media posts early yesterday, New South Wales Parliament for Prospect member Hugh McDermott posted a photo of himself shaking hands with Lin in Australia on Friday.
“On Friday, I was so pleased to meet with Minister Lin Chia-lung alongside parliamentary colleagues and representatives from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia,” he wrote in the posts.
Photo: screen grab from Hugh McDermott’s Facebook page
The office is Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Australia in the absence of official diplomatic ties.
Neither the lawmaker or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs specified where in Australia Lin made his transit stop.
Given the lack of official ties, it is rare for Taiwan’s foreign minister to openly meet with Australian politicians even if they make a stopover in the country, normally before or after visits to Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the South Pacific.
The ministry yesterday said that Lin had transited through Australia before and was doing so again after visiting Tuvalu last week as a special envoy of President William Lai (賴清德).
The ministry said it was a “necessary arrangement” to make such stopovers before and after visiting Tuvalu, one of Taiwan’s 12 formal diplomatic allies.
Lin visited Tuvalu to expand bilateral cooperation in tackling climate change and promoting democratic development, it said.
During his stay in Tuvalu on Wednesday and Thursday, Lin donated maintenance costs for Tuvalu’s first undersea cable, “Vaka,” to ensure communication resilience and signed a double taxation avoidance agreement, it said.
Lin on Saturday morning returned to Taiwan after making the stopover in Australia, the ministry said.
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