Taiwan awaits South Africa's response on office relocation, renaming

Taipei, March 31 (CNA) The Taiwan government is still awaiting a response from South Africa regarding its demand that Taiwan's representative office be relocated from Pretoria and renamed by the end of March.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman Hsiao Kuangwei (蕭光偉) told CNA on Monday that Taipei has proposed talks with Pretoria regarding its delegation in the country and is open to potentially signing a new agreement.

He said, however, that the South African side has not responded.

The spokesman said that as of Monday morning (Taipei time), the Taipei Liaison Office in the Republic of South Africa (TLO) is operating normally in South Africa's administrative capital, Pretoria.

Last year, the South African government began its push to categorize the Taiwan representative office as a "trade office" and move it from Pretoria to the commercial capital, Johannesburg.

It initially set the deadline as October 2024 before extending it to the end of March.

The South African side unilaterally changed the name of the Taipei office on its Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) website from the "Taipei Liaison Office" to the "Taipei Commercial Office" in early March.

MOFA protested the move, calling for talks between the two sides.

Taiwan has accused China of being behind the South African government's decision to ask the Taipei office to relocate and rename, citing the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 and the "one-China principle."

Resolution 2758 was adopted by the 26th U.N. General Assembly in 1971 to address the issue of China's representation in the world body and resulted in the Republic of China, Taiwan's official name, losing its seat at the U.N. to the People's Republic of China (PRC).

After South Africa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1998, the latter established a representative office in Pretoria under the name Taipei Liaison Office in the Republic of South Africa based on a 1997 agreement. Taiwan also has a branch office in Cape Town called the Taipei Liaison Office.

South Africa also has a liaison office in Taipei based on that deal.