Brussels (Brussels Morning) Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to send an investment delegation to the EU in October. Headed by a senior minister, the delegation will visit three Central and Eastern European countries, Reuters reports.
Remus Chen, head of the ministry’s Department of European Affairs, said the 65-strong delegation is to visit Lithuania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, three EU member states that pledged a total of 60,000 COVID-19 vaccine shots to Taiwan in the second half of October.
Kung Ming-hsin, Minister of the Taiwanese National Development Council, which is responsible for Taiwan’s industrial development policy, will lead the delegation.
Chen said the delegation would include representatives of tech companies but did not name them. “Taiwan has many great industries and companies”, he noted, and “the government must be a firm backer to help them go out into the world.”
Warming relations
Chen observed that relations between Taiwan and the three EU member states have been improving streadily, citing how Czech officials had visited Taiwan last year.
He also noted that last year Lithuania had decided to allow Taiwan to open a de facto embassy and that the Lithuanian authorities had announced plans to do the same in Taipei.
“This shows the unity of international democratic partners and friendship,” Chen remarked.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory and is angered by the warming relations between Taiwan and EU member states.
While cooperation between Taiwan and the EU has been improving, the bloc has yet to act on the island’s request to revive stalled talks for a bilateral investment deal.The EU has been looking to improve cooperation on the production of semiconductors with Taiwan, one of the world’s largest chip makers, given how supply chain disruptions have affected production by automobile makers.
