TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Tuesday (July 20) announced that the country will be opening a representative office in Lithuania.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) announced that Taiwan will set up a representative office in Lithuania's capital city of Vilnius. Wu said that the name of the new office will be the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania.

Wu said that MOFA is actively undertaking preparations to establish the new office. He also thanked Lithuania for expressing its intent to donate 20,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

When asked why the word "Taiwanese" had been chosen for the office, Wu said that it will be the first such office in Europe to have "Taiwan" in the name. He pointed out that the representative offices of foreign countries in Taiwan also use this convention, such as the British Office Taipei, French Office in Taipei, German Institute Taipei, and American Institute in Taiwan.

Earlier this month, Lithuanian Minister of Economy and Innovation Ausrine Armonaite told Deutsche Welle that the Baltic nation will establish a trade office in Taiwan in October or November.