A Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official said Thursday that Taiwan’s government was aiming to open a representative in Montréal, Canada, in the first half of 2023.
Douglas Hsu (???), head of MOFA’s North American Affairs Department, said preparations for Taiwan’s fourth representative office in Canada were underway.
Taiwan currently has a main representative office in the Canadian capital Ottawa, and branch offices in Toronto and Vancouver.
“We hope we can see positive development on the project in the first half of next year,” Hsu told reporters during a news briefing.
MOFA first announced its plan to open the office on Tuesday but did not say when it would open.
A source familiar with the matter told CNA Thursday that MOFA has already located four potential sites for the new office within Montréal, Canada’s second most-populous city.
The office — to be named the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO), Montréal — will have around 10 staff members, similar to the two branch offices in Toronto and Vancouver, according to the source.
The source also speculated that the Canadian government’s relatively swift approval of plans for a Montréal office meant Ottawa was paying more attention to Taiwan as part of its overall Indo-Pacific strategy released last month.
The Canadian strategy document refers to Taiwan multiple times, including working with Indo-Pacific partners to push back against any unilateral actions threatening the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas.
Montréal, the largest city in the French-speaking province of Quebec, is known as a technology hub and is also home to the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Taiwan currently has 111 overseas representative offices, including embassies and consulates in the 14 countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel