Lithuania has pledged to donate 20,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan. The announcement comes as Taiwan faces both a vaccine shortage and its biggest domestic outbreak of COVID-19 to date. The vaccine doses are expected to arrive in September.
On Tuesday, as Lithuania announced the donation, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis took to Twitter to voice support for Taiwan. He wrote that he was proud to show solidarity with the Taiwanese people in combating COVID-19, and that freedom-loving people should look out for each other.
Taiwanese officials have welcomed news of the donation and expressed their thanks to Lithuania. In a Facebook post Tuesday, President Tsai thanked Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte and her administration. Last year, Taiwan donated 100,000 face masks to Lithuania, and Tsai said that Taiwan will continue supporting other democratic nations in fighting the pandemic.
Foreign Minister Joseph Wu also expressed his appreciation on Twitter. He tweeted, “My heartfelt appreciation to the government & people of #Lithuania for the vaccine donation. Minister @GLandsbergis, your great country has captured the heart of every person in #Taiwan at this difficult time. You're a true friend, & we're #StrongerTogether.”
Taiwan’s representative to the Baltic states, Eric Huang, also thanked Lithuanian officials and said that Lithuania is the first European country to donate vaccines to Taiwan.