Culture Minister Lung Yingtai has met with State Secretary of Germany’s Federal Foreign Office Stephan Steinlein. The meeting was the highest-level meeting between officials from Taiwan and Germany in many years. The two countries do not have formal diplomatic ties, making meetings between high-level government officials rare. Taiwan’s culture ministry also called the meeting a “milestone”.
The two officials met in Berlin Tuesday and discussed issues such as bilateral cultural exchanges, human rights, transitional justice, and Taiwan-China relations.
During their one-hour meeting, Lung called Taiwan the democracy “laboratory” of the Chinese-speaking world. She said that Taiwan is an important key if the West is to understand China. She also said that to understand Taiwan, one has to start with its culture.
Lung left Taiwan last week on a ten-day trip to Switzerland and Germany, with the goal of deepening the cultural ties between Taiwan and the two European countries.