Australia says it’s not seeking name change for Taiwan’s de facto embassy

There have been ‘no discussions of that nature’ and the country remains committed to its one-China policy, according to Foreign Minister Marise Payne

Remarks come after Beijing downgraded ties with Vilnius for allowing Taipei to open a Taiwanese representative office in Lithuania

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Foreign Minister Marise Payne says she has not held any talks with Taiwan about the possibility of renaming its representative office in Australia. Photo: AP

Published: 2:45pm, 9 Feb 2022Updated: 3:02pm, 9 Feb 2022

Australia is not looking at renaming Taiwan’s de facto embassy in the country and remains committed to its one-China policy, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Wednesday, amid strain in diplomatic ties with Beijing.

Payne said she had not held any talks with Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own, about the possibility of changing the name of its representative office in Australia.

“No discussions of that nature,” Payne told a news briefing held in the capital of Canberra with visiting Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis. “Australia remains committed to our one-China policy.”

The comments came as China downgraded ties with Lithuania and pressed multinationals to sever links with the Baltic state after the island opened a Taiwanese representative office in Vilnius last year, avoiding use of the more common term, Taipei.

Australia has also joined the United States and Britain in backing a European Union trade case against China at the World Trade Organization over Beijing’s alleged trade curbs on Lithuania that it says threaten the integrity of the EU’s single market.