Taiwan names foreign ministry's chief secretary as new envoy to Ireland

Taipei, May 4 (CNA) The secretary general of Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), one of the top posts in the foreign ministry, has been named the country's top envoy to Ireland, the government has recently announced.

According to an Executive Yuan personnel announcement made earlier this month, Daniel Tang (唐殿文) will fill the vacancy left by his immediate predecessor, Yang Tzu-pao (楊子葆), whose resignation has been approved and was made public by the Presidential Office on April 29.

Yang has served as Taiwan's representative to the European country since 2018.

Tang, who holds a Bachelor's degree from National Taiwan University's Department of Political Science, has served as MOFA's secretary general since February 2023.

The secretary general is in charge of communication and liaison between all MOFA departments and the Executive Yuan, Presidential Office, and other government units. It is the fifth-highest post in MOFA after the foreign minister, two deputy ministers, and one vice minister.

Before serving as the ministry's chief secretary, Tang was Taiwan's top envoy to South Korea and ambassador to the Marshall Islands.

Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan also announced Taiwan-Japan Relations Association Secretary-General Fan Chen-kuo (范振國) will become Taiwan's new representative to Japan's Yokohama city. The association is MOFA's top unit in charge of Japanese affairs.

The Yokohama office is one of the five branch offices of Taiwan's representative office in Japan, which is headquartered in Tokyo. The other four branch offices are in Osaka, Fukuoka, Naha (the capital of Okinawa) and Sapporo.