Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) on Saturday met with two Italian lawmakers in an unannounced visit to Milan, local media reports said.
In separate posts on Facebook, Paolo Formentini, vice president of the Chamber of Deputies Foreign Affairs Committee, called the meeting “an honor,” while Italian lawmaker Igor Iezzi wrote that he is “always on the side of freedom.”
“It was an opportunity to reiterate that the status quo in the Taiwan Strait must remain the current one and that freedom of navigation must always be defended,” Formentini told the Italian news site Le Formiche on Saturday.
Photo: Screen grab from Igor Iezzi’s Facebook page
The visit was also important as Taiwan prepares to set up a representative office in Milan, its second in Italy, the site said.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had no comment on the reported meeting in Milan.
As Italy does not formally recognize the Republic of China, meetings between serving Italian lawmakers and Taiwanese officials are rare.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via CNA
Wu on Monday last week departed on a trip to Europe, during which he visited the Warsaw School of Economics, and met with Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil in Prague on Tuesday and European Parliament Vice President Nicola Beer in Brussels on Friday.
Wu also met with 12 lawmakers at the European Parliament, including European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence Vice Chair Rasa Jukneviciene, Belgium-Taiwan Friendship Group copresident Georges Dallemagne, Luxembourgian lawmaker Claude Wiseler and member of the British House of Lords Sal Brinton, the ministry said in a news release yesterday.
The European Parliament-Taiwan Friendship Group and the Belgium-Taiwan Friendship Group each issued a certificate of appreciation and a joint letter of appreciation to Wu in recognition of his contributions to deepening the partnership between Taiwan, and the EU and Belgium, it said.
The European lawmakers and Wu exchanged opinions on cooperation between Taiwan and Europe, the situation in the Taiwan Strait and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it said.
Jukneviciene, who was Lithuanian minister of defense from 2008 to 2012, was quoted by the ministry as saying that Taiwan had demonstrated its courage in safeguarding democracy and freedom in the face of China’s ambition to expand.
Enhancing Taiwan-EU relations has become the consensus of cross-party members of the European Parliament, she added.
Dallemagne called on Europe to continue its firm support for Taiwan’s freedom, democracy and international participation, the ministry said.
He presented to Wu a letter of appreciation signed by the six copresidents of the Belgium-Taiwan Friendship Group, it said.
Wiseler thanked Taiwan for donating urgently needed masks to Luxembourg and other European countries in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and affirmed Taiwan’s contribution to global public health, it said.
Brinton urged Europe to unite with Taiwan to take on challenges posed by authoritarian countries and expressed appreciation for the Taiwanese government and Taiwanese providing aid to Ukraine, it said.
Wu thanked the lawmakers for supporting cross-strait peace and stability, closer Taiwan-Europe cooperation and Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, the ministry said.
The high-level reception received by the minister underlined the importance the European Parliament attaches to Taiwan and the actions it takes to bolster cooperative partnerships, it said.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘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
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
RSS