Slovakia latest EU member state to make official Taiwan visit

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An official visit of a Slovakia delegation to Taiwan is drawing the ire of China. Senior officials from Bratislava, who arrived on Sunday, are looking to deepen ties with the self-governed island nation, which China claims as its own territory.

Another EU member state making a visit to Taiwan is diplomatically significant, in the wake of a European Parliament delegation trip to Taipei last month.

The Economic and Development Cooperation Agency director general at the Slovak Foreign Ministry has called Taiwan one of the country’s most important investors and says Bratislava is determined to work with Taipei. The island’s investments in Slovakia total over EUR 500 million and have resulted in 3,000 jobs, according to Taiwan’s National Development Council.

Slovakia is not the only country in Central and Eastern Europe to court Taiwanese investment. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen last week tweeted a welcome to MPs from the three Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania: “We are grateful for your support & excited to explore opportunities for broader cooperation based on our shared values,” she wrote.

Last summer Lithuania agreed to open a Taiwan representative office in Vilnius. China responded by withdrawing its ambassador to Lithuania and recent media reports have claimed that Lithuanian products have been removed from China’s customs systems.

Source: AP, Global Times, Twitter