Deputy foreign minister named new envoy to Netherlands: Source

Taipei, Jan. 5 (CNA) Deputy Foreign Minister Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) will become Taiwan's new representative to the Netherlands and will be replaced by an official involved in relations with China, a source told CNA on Sunday.

Tien, who served as deputy minister since July 2020, will take up the post in Amsterdam that has been vacant since September 2024 after Chen Hsin-hsin (陳欣新) returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Taipei headquarters to head its Department of Protocol.

A senior diplomat with four decades in the foreign service, Tien's most recent overseas posting was as Taiwan's top envoy to India from 2013 to 2020.

He was also the country's former ambassador to Tuvalu and has served in other Pacific island countries, Canada and the United States.

Tien's position as deputy foreign minister will be filled by Chen Ming-chi (陳明祺), the former deputy head of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the government's top agency in charge of China affairs.

A diplomatic source told CNA on Sunday that the appointments of Tien and Chen Ming-chi have been approved by Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), but the source did not say when the two will officially assume their respective posts.

The appointment of a former deputy foreign minister to the Netherlands reflected the high priority Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has given to Taiwan's cooperation with the Netherlands and the European Union as a whole, in particular in the semiconductor sector, the source said.

Tien's successor, Chen Ming-chi, was the deputy head of the Cabinet-level MAC from July 2018 to June 2022 in former President Tsai Ing-wen's (蔡英文) administration.

He was also an advisor to the National Security Council (NSC) before being appointed CEO of the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research in July 2023.

Before engaging in public service, Chen spent more than a decade at National Tsing Hua University, where he was an associate professor in the school's Institute of Sociology and served as the institute's director between August 2016 and June 2018.

The unnamed source said Chen has a wealth of experience in international strategic studies and China affairs, and given the ongoing confrontational relations between the United States and China, that experience and expertise will be highly useful.