The Lithuanian mission in Taipei will open soon, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told Lithuanian journalists, noting that he has already given the go-ahead for the opening.
“About Lithuanian office in Taiwan, I don’t want to make an announcement for your government, but I think it’s coming very close to have a real office here in Taipei. […] I have already agreed to Lithuanian government to set up an office here in Taiwan. So we are waiting for the officials appointed by your government to come to Taiwan and to set up that office,” Wu said.
Lithuania last year allowed the opening of a Taiwanese representative office in Vilnius and intends to open a Lithuanian economic representative office in Taipei.
Minister Wu stressed that he respects Lithuania’s decision to open a representation for economic cooperation rather than full-fledged consular services.
“The government here in Taiwan will provide any kind assistance that is deemed necessary by the Lithuanian government,” he said.
The representative office will be very popular, he believes, and many people will want to contact it and be interested in investment opportunities in Lithuania.
“The functions of this office depend on the Lithuanian government. If he thinks that doing trade only is for the time being our only mission, we respect that. But if the Lithuanian government wants doing the consular functions for its office in Taiwan, it is most welcomed. For example, if it wants to issue passports or visas to Taiwanese citizens to be able to visit your country or for your people to come to Taiwan and apply for a new passport, things like that. That would make traveling between Taiwan and Lithuania so convenient,” Wu said.
“We would encourage the Lithuanian office here in Taiwan to carry out the functions its supposed to carry out. And the Lithuanian office here in Taiwan, we recognize it as the office that represent your government and your people,” he added.
Many Taiwanese would be eager to visit Lithuania when the pandemic is over, he noted, as well as Taiwanese leaders.
“If I have a possibility to visit your country, and your government thinks that it’s appropriate for me to come, it’s in our bilateral interests, I can come tomorrow. But for the President [Tsai Ing-wen], it might be a little more difficult. We have to carefully plan ahead of time, and we don’t have a schedule,” he added.
Pressure from Beijing
The name of the Taiwanese mission – rather than Taipei’s – has sparked resentment from Beijing, which says it violates the so-called One China principle. As a result, China has unilaterally downgraded diplomatic relations with Lithuania to the level of charge d’affaires.
Minister Wu said that Beijing was punishing Lithuania and trying to make an example of the country: “When we do things, we need to calculate or we need to know what is the right thing and what is the wrong. For the Lithuanian government to think that Taiwan can use the name that it prefers to call yourself is the right thing. And we appreciate that very much. But for a country to use trade as a weapon against other countries for its political purpose – it’s wrong. And therefore it’s very clear China doesn’t have the right to do that.”
According to the Taiwanese minister, Beijing is trying to give the world a distorted image that the island of Taiwan belongs to China, which is not true.
“This is not the first time we see it, we saw China use economic coercion against Taiwan, against Australia and other countries. And this is the wrong thing. And I think it’s a wake-up call at for the European countries and for the United States,” Wu said.
Joining sanctions on Russia
The Taiwanese foreign minister noted that Taipei rejects Russia’s actions against Ukraine and openly c ondemns the war, the killing of civilians by Russian troops and the bombing of civilian targets.
“It is the responsibility for Taiwan to join the international community to try to persuade or force the Russians to stop the war. Even though Taiwan is very small, very remote from Ukraine, but we join the international sanctions,” he said.
Taiwan has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine and to European countries hosting war refugees.
“When they [Taiwanese people] saw that Russia initiated the war against Ukraine, and what a big bully can do to a smaller country, […] they responded in an overwhelming way,” according to Wu.
There is a possibility that Beijing will take advantage of the world’s focus on Ukraine to take action against Taiwan, the minister said. However, he said, China sees the difficulties the Russians are facing in the war and, like Taiwan, is trying to learn the lessons.
“Preparing ourselves for a possible Chinese attack is something that the Taiwanese government has been doing for decades already,” Wu said.
More investment
Taipei expects more Taiwanese business investment in Lithuania, Wu noted.
Taipei earlier this year promised to offer a 1-billion-US-dollar credit fund for Lithuanian-Taiwanese joint business projects and to set up a 200-million-dollar fund for investment in Lithuania’s industrial sector.
“We may have more. After the donation of vaccines from Lithuania to Taiwan, the people started to realise that Lithuania has a great potential. Businesses are encouraged by the government to look for targets for investment,” the foreign minister told Lithuanian journalists.
“I think we are likely to come with more investment in Lithuania,” Wu said.
“Taiwan is a democracy. We don’t operate like China. We cannot grab one company and say, you have to invest there. What we want is to encourage them, make it convenient for them,” he said.
Taiwanese businesses have identified several priority sectors, including the semiconductor industry, according to Wu.
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