TIES THAT BIND
Increasing numbers of visits between delegations and ministers have reinforced relations and increased business between the two countries recently
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By Huang Ching-hsuan
and Hollie Younger / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday declined to comment on media reports that Romanian Minister of Finance Alexandru Nazare visited Taiwan at the end of last year.
Formosa Television (FTV) yesterday reported that Nazare had visited Taiwan to discuss establishing reciprocal representative offices and strengthening bilateral economic ties with President William Lai (賴清德).
The ministry did not comment on the report, but said it welcomed Romanian political figures’ support for deepening bilateral relations.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In August last year, Romanian Senator and Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China co-chair Cristian Ghinea led a six-person delegation of lawmakers from Bucharest’s ruling coalition to Taipei, it said.
Following that visit, Ghinea and a number of Romanian members of parliament issued a joint statement calling for various sectors to strengthen engagement with Taiwan and expand bilateral economic and trade exchanges, the ministry said.
In 2024, Catalin-Daniel Fenechiu, chair of the Romania-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group, led a delegation to Taiwan for the inauguration of the Taiwan-the Balkans Nine Countries Parliamentary Friendship Association, it added.
Nazare has said that the two countries have great potential to collaborate in information technology, critical infrastructure and national defense, and should boost investment, local news reported.
Taiwan and Romania do not maintain formal diplomatic relations.
Romania-related affairs are handled by the Taiwan representative offices in Slovakia and Hungary, although the Taiwan Trade Center, Bucharest, was established by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council in 2005 to manage Taiwan-Romanian trade and commerce.
There are six Taiwanese businesses with facilities in Romania, dealing with computer hardware and software and resource recycling, with investment estimated at about US$224 million, FTV reported.
If negotiations run smoothly, Taiwan could open a representative office in Bucharest by the end of the year, a diplomatic source told FTV.