Taiwan's top diplomat, Lin Chia-lung, met members of the European Parliament this week in Brussels, during an unannounced stop in his first visit to Europe aimed at strengthening ties against Beijing. Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said in a short statement Wednesday that the minister “had traveled to the European Union/Belgium to meet friends at the European Parliament”. He has “took advantage of this visit to exchange with European friends”added the ministry, without further details.
Rasa Jukneviciene, Lithuanian member of the European Parliament, confirmed on X that she had met him. This former Lithuanian Defense Minister added that Lin Chia-Lung was visiting her country, a member of the EU and NATO, on Wednesday.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had notably announced that he was to go to Lithuania at the head of a delegation of representatives of around twenty companies specializing in drones, during a week-long tour of Europe beginning on November 17. . Lithuania aroused the wrath of Beijing in 2021 by authorizing Taiwan to open a de facto embassy in Vilnius in 2021. In response, Beijing downgraded its diplomatic relations with Lithuania and blocked its exports.
Taiwan has seen increased military and political pressure in recent years from China, which considers the island its territory and has promised to one day seize it, by force if necessary. The Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, for their part consider neighboring Russia, an ally of China, as an existential threat, especially after the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army in 2022.
