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Taiwan thanks U.S. lawmakers for initiative to rename de facto embassy

ROC Central News Agency

02/04/2022 07:52 PM

Taipei, Feb. 4 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Friday expressed gratitude after four United States lawmakers introduced bills to rename Taiwan's de-facto embassy in Washington the "Taiwan Representative Office."

Reuters reported that a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers had proposed matching bills in the Senate and the House of Representatives that would require the U.S. government to negotiate a name change of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO).

The bills call for TECRO to be renamed the "Taiwan Representative Office."

Commenting on the report, MOFA spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said Friday that the ministry thanked the U.S. Congress for its bipartisan support for Taiwan and the promotion of bilateral ties.

The ministry will follow up developments of the bills and continue to work with both the U.S. administration and Congress to strengthen the partnership between Taiwan and the U.S., Ou added.

The report said the proposed legislation would certainly draw the ire of Beijing as the proposed name change would likely be interpreted by China as suggesting Taiwan is an independent country.

Beijing downgraded its diplomatic relations with Lithuania after the Baltic state allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in Vilnius with the word "Taiwanese" in its name instead of "Taipei," which is used by Taiwan's representative offices in other countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Taipei.

According to the report, Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democrat Senator Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sponsored the Senate bill, while Republican representative John Curtis and his Democratic colleague Chris Pappas put forth the House version.

"We must take this step to strengthen our diplomatic partnership with Taiwan and counter China's repeated attempts to threaten and coerce nations around the globe," Pappas was quoted by Reuters as saying.

At the same time, Menendez commented that the bills were in line with the U.S.' Taiwan Relations Act, which has served as a foundation for the Taiwan-U.S. relationship since the two broke formal ties in 1979.

(By Fan Cheng-hsiang and Teng Pei-ju)

Enditem/ASG