Despite Chinese protests, Taiwan opens its office in Lithuania

Despite retaliatory sanctions imposed by China against Lithuania, Taiwan officially opened its new representative office in the Baltic state on Thursday.

China has been acting against Lithuania over the latter's decision to allow the use of "Taiwanese" in Taipei's representative office.

The Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was opened in the capital Vilnius, with Eric Huang, currently, Taiwan's chief of Mission in Latvia, appointed as the nation's first representative to Lithuania, reported Focus Taiwan citing a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) press release.

The new office will facilitate bilateral cooperation in various fields, including semiconductors, lasers and fintech, the release said, adding, the opening of the office will "charter a new and promising course for bilateral relations between Taiwan and Lithuania."

The new office will take over, with immediate effect, the responsibility of promoting relations between Taiwan and the Baltic state, as well as serving and protecting Taiwanese citizens in the country, said Focus Taiwan citing the release.

The development came as Lithuania is facing increased pressure from China following its decision to open reciprocal representative offices with Taiwan.

Taiwan typically uses "Taipei Economic and Cultural Office" or "Taipei Representative Office" in those countries, likely due to host countries' preference to avoid any semblance of treating Taiwan as a separate country in light of their "one-China" policy, according to Focus Taiwan.

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor