Taiwan, Lithuania grow ties despite pressure from Beijing

PTI, Jul 20, 2021, 3:14 PM IST

Taipei: Taiwan will exchange representative offices with Lithuania, the self-governed island said Tuesday, in a breakthrough for its foreign relations that are under constant pressure from China.

The offices will seek to enhance economic and trade relations, along with cooperation in various other fields, the island’s Foreign Ministry said.

The office will bear the name of Taiwan, rather than “Chinese Taipei,” the term used in other countries in order not to offend Beijing, which claims the island as its territory without the right to diplomatic recognition.

“The governments of Taiwan and Lithuania have mutually agreed after intensive negotiations that Taiwan will soon establish a representative office in the Lithuanian capital city of Vilnius,” Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said.

“The name of the representative office will be The Taiwanese representative office in Lithuania’. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is aggressively working on the preparations.” Wu said.

Taiwan’s first-ever representative office abroad to bear the name of Taiwan was established in Somaliland in 2020.

While Chinese pressure has reduced the island’s formal diplomatic allies to just 15, it maintains informal ties with all major nations through the use of de facto embassies.

Lithuania will set up its office in Taiwan in the autumn, Wu said.

“I, therefore, believe that Taiwan and Lithuania’s economic and trade exchanges, cooperation in various fields, as well as the friendships between people will all be enhanced, despite their geographical distance,” said Wu.

The last time Taiwan established a representative office in Europe was in 2003 in Bratislava, Slovakia.