Swedish lawmakers have proposed a motion to have a building in Taiwan similar to the House of Sweden in Washington, with the motion expected to be debated and voted on soon, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The idea was first mentioned on April 14 during a five-day visit to Taiwan by a Swedish delegation.
The House of Sweden building in Washington is evocative of the climate of Sweden and its political transparency. In addition to being the Swedish embassy, the building also houses the embassies of Iceland and Liechtenstein, as well as Swedish companies.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The delegation said it would propose changing the name of Sweden’s representative office in Taipei, the Swedish Trade and Invest Council, to the House of Sweden to symbolize an expanded range of diplomatic work in Taiwan, Department of European Affairs Director Remus Chen (陳立國) said yesterday.
Swedish Parliament Deputy Speaker Kerstin Lundgren on April 14 told reporters in Taipei that she had been one of the lawmakers who initiated the motion, adding that it has received the support of a majority of lawmakers on the Riksdag’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
While the Swedish government has the final say, the Swedish parliament hopes to express its support for Taiwan through this gesture, Lundgren said.
“As a sovereign nation, it is up to Sweden how the ‘one China’ policy is interpreted. From our point of view, the name change does not violate the ‘one China’ policy,” she said.
By changing the name to the House of Sweden, we hope to underscore that Taiwan should be seen as a sovereign nation and not a province of China, Swedish lawmaker Markus Wiechel said at the time.
Meanwhile, the ministry declined to comment on whether Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa’s defeat in elections on Sunday would impact a reported plan to open reciprocal representative offices.
Asked if the ouster of Jansa could jeopardize the reported talks, Chen did not directly answer the question, saying only that Taiwan had congratulated Slovenia on holding a “peaceful election through a democratic process.”
“The government is ready to deepen its cooperation with the new Slovenian government on various fronts and across party lines to pursue mutually beneficial relationships,” he said, without elaborating.
In Sunday’s elections, the ruling Slovenian Democratic Party, led by Jansa, was defeated by Robert Golob and his Freedom Movement party.
Jansa has visited Taiwan on four occasions and he founded the Slovenia-Taiwan Parliamentarian Friendship Association.
During an interview with Indian broadcaster Doordarshan in January, Jansa said that Slovenia and Taiwan were working on exchanging representatives and opening representative offices.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS