Taiwanese foreign minister Joseph Wu adds Slovakia visit to European trip

Wu will attend a meeting organised by a local think tank, before visiting neighbouring Czech Republic and addressing virtual event in Rome

Taipei has been working to promote ties to European countries and recent plans to open a de facto embassy in Lithuania angered Beijing

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Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:22pm, 21 Oct 2021Updated: 2:22pm, 21 Oct 2021

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu will visit Slovakia next week on a rare trip to Europe that will also include a trip to the neighbouring Czech Republic and a virtual address to a forum in Rome, his ministry said on Thursday.

Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with any European country, apart from the Vatican City, but has been keen to promote ties with other like-minded democracies in the European Union.

The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Lithuania have all donated Covid-19 vaccines to Taiwan, and Lithuania and Taiwan are due to open de facto embassies in each others’ capitals before the end of the year, to Beijing’s anger.

Taiwanese foreign ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou told reporters that Wu would first attend a forum in Slovakia on Tuesday organised by a local think tank, and then go to Prague to meet the speaker of the Czech parliament’s upper house Milos Vystrcil and Prague mayor Zdenek Hrib.

Vystrcil and Hrib visited Taiwan last year, infuriating China. Wu’s Czech visit had previously been confirmed, but not his trip to Slovakia.

Wu will also “think of a way” to speak virtually at the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China’s summit in Rome next Friday, Ou added, an event being attended by Penpa Tsering, head of the exiled Tibetan government, and other people at odds with Beijing.

“We will more actively seek the support of the international community and look forward to strengthening relations between Taiwan and the democratic countries of Central and Eastern Europe,” Ou said.