West Virginia would build a long-term relationship with Taiwan, said Craig Blair, lieutenant governor of the US state, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its representative office in Taipei on Thursday.
Blair, who is president of the West Virginia Senate, said he looked forward to the office providing a platform to build ties between Taiwan and his state.
He had advocated opening a representative office since his previous visit to Taiwan in 2018, Blair said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Taiwan’s landscape reminds him of West Virginia, he said, adding that while there the two places speak different languages, “the cultures and friendship is exactly the same.”
“I’ve passed more tunnels in the last 48 hours than I have in my entire life,” Blair said, adding that tunneling technology could be a focus of cooperation given West Virginia’s mountainous terrain.
He plans to form a think tank linking Taiwan and West Virginia to study which areas are most beneficial for the two sides to cooperate on, Blair told reporters.
West Virginia Secretary of the Department of Economic Development Mitch Carmichael thanked Taiwan for allowing the state government to open the office.
West Virginia is a great investment destination and is known for its high quality of life, low cost of living and highly competitive workforce, Carmichael said.
Douglas Hsu (徐佑典), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ North American Affairs Department, congratulated the US visitors on the opening of the office, saying that many US state governments are opening them in Taiwan.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin this week approved a Virginia trade office in Taiwan.
Twelve other US states and one territory have opened representative offices in Taiwan: Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wyoming, as well as Guam, which is an unincorporated US territory.
In other news, the Arizona House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously passed State Concurrent Resolution 1021, which supports Taiwan’s international participation, and a closer partnership between Taiwan and the US in terms of trade and official exchanges.
The resolution, passed amid a standing ovation, says: “The members of the legislature support a future official visit to Taiwan by the governor of Arizona at her discretion.”
Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles head Amino Chi (紀欽耀) witnessed the resolution being passed.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs told Chi at the hearing that she supports democratic Taiwan.
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