By Wu Che-yu and Sam Garcia / Staff reporter, with staff writer
In a historic first, Taiwanese officials participated in this year’s Riga Strategic Communications Dialogue in Latvia from Wednesday to Friday last week, which debuted a breakout session focused on Taiwan The event organizer, the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence, displayed Taiwan’s national flag and the officials’ formal titles on their Web site. Taiwanese attendees included National Security Council (NSC) Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and deputy head of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK, Chiang Ya-chi (江雅綺).
Taipei Representative Office in the UK Deputy Representative Chiang Ya-chi, left, and National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan, right, participate in a forum at the Riga Strategic Communications Dialogue in Latvia last week.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK
In addition to the session discussing Taiwan titled “Taiwan: Navigating Strategic Communication in a Tense Environment,” the dialogue also included sessions discussing Japan and the Indo-Pacific region, reflecting NATO’s growing attention to the region in the past few years, the NSC said. During the session, Lin said China’s strategic communication objectives are to undermine solidarity among democratic allies by amplifying division, while also using economic and diplomatic intimidation to create an international environment that discourages engagement with Taiwan.
