Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has had a busy few months, going to many countries, including some that senior Taiwanese officials rarely visit. This has culminated in a keynote speech at the Warsaw Security Forum this week, where Lin pushed Taiwan’s new supply chain strategy — “Trusted Technology Taiwan” or the Triple-T strategy.
“It is high time for Europe to stand with Taiwan to forge a robust coalition for our shared values and to halt the expansion of authoritarian regimes,” Lin told the audience.
On October 2, Lin posted on X that he had met with Polish parliamentarians, including Senate Deputy Speaker Michal Kaminski. Kaminski was part of a delegation that visited Taiwan in November 2024.
This is Lin’s second known trip to Poland since he became foreign minister. Perceptions of Warsaw-Taipei ties have been buoyed with the news that Poland accounted for 60% of Taiwan’s drone exports in the second quarter of 2025. On September 3, a Taiwanese industrial delegation to a Polish defense expo signed a three-way Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on uncrewed aerial vehicles with Polish and Ukrainian counterparts.
As Taiwan’s foreign minister, Lin’s trips have often been unacknowledged, at least until after they took place, in order to try to reduce the pressure from China onto receiving countries. This can make tracking his whereabouts harder than it should be for a foreign minister.
Nonetheless, Lin has been discreetly active and there have been a number of very interesting destinations. The rest of this article is a round-up of the places he has been this summer and his reported activities there.
Brazil
Lin visited Sao Paolo in Brazil on July 14th, transiting on his way back to Taiwan from Paraguay, a country which has official relations with Taiwan. He met with state parliamentarian Gil Diniz. Diniz reported on his own social media that the business delegation that Lin had taken to Paraguay was present at their meeting.
Unlike most of the countries in this article, Brazil maintains relatively unstrained geopolitical relations with China.
Japan
Lin visited Japan, including Tokyo and Osaka, in late July. The visit was revealed on July 25 when Japanese politician Keiji Furuya posted a photo of himself on Facebook meeting with Lin. Also present was Sanae Takaichi, one of the leading candidates to be Japan’s next prime minister.
Lin later confirmed the trip on August 14. CNA reported that Taiwan’s foreign ministry said that Lin’s visit was made in a private capacity, and that Lin had visited Taiwan’s representative office in Tokyo.
After the visit China cancelled a planned trip by agriculture minister Han Jun (韓俊). Chinese media Xinhua relayed other media reports that the cancellation was related to Lin’s visit.
The Philippines
Lin visited the Philippines on August 28, visiting Manila and other cities, according to Bloomberg. It was reportedly only the second visit to the country by a Taiwanese foreign minister since the Philippines recognised China in 1975. Both the Filipino foreign minister and Taiwan’s foreign ministry declined to say whether Lin was making the trip at the time.
Lin’s visit was part of a joint-trip made by the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council and the Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association (which is a Taiwanese body). The two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in May. U.S.-Taiwan Business Council President Rupert Hammond-Chambers told reporters at a supply chain event in September that 2026 would see “an uptick in delegations, defense delegations, that have American and Taiwan businesses going to third countries to talk about expanding partnerships … to address this issue of supply chain vulnerability.”
In April, the presidential office of the Philippines issued a memorandum relaxing the restrictions on interactions with Taiwan for Philippine officials.
Czechia
Lin flew to Europe on September 11, reportedly transiting in Vienna on the way to Prague, his first stop. He attended the opening of an exhibition from the National Palace Museum in Taipei, hosted by the National Museum of the Czech Republic. This exhibition has been years in the planning, and the opening was attended by numerous other Taiwanese officials and parliamentarians. Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil and Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marketa Pekarova Adamova, both previous high-profile visitors to Taiwan, were also in attendance.
Lin spent three days in Czechia, concluding his visit on September 13 after visiting the new Taiwan-Czech Advanced Chip Design Research Center in Brno.
Italy
Lin visited Italy, attending a ceremony on September 17 marking the renovation of Taiwan’s representative office in Rome. Also in attendance, according to CNA, were Senator Lucio Malan, who serves as the chairman of the Taiwan-Italy Parliamentarians Friendship Association, Gian Marco Centinaio, vice president of the Italian Senate, and Paolo Formentini, vice chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.
Liberty Times reported that while in Rome, Lin convened a meeting of all the Taiwanese representatives stationed in Europe. News of Lin’s visit to Italy was not broken until after his departure.
The Vatican City?
When in Rome, Lin visited the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Holy See. However, from Taiwan foreign ministry statements, and from Lin’s photos on social media, it is unclear whether he entered the Vatican City itself. There is also no reporting that Lin met with the Pope, despite the fact that the Vatican is the only European state to have official diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Austria
Lin visited Austria before the end of his trip on September 20. He met with Austrian politicians at the Austrian parliament, including Gunther Ruprecht, vice president of the Federal Council and Werner Amon, president of the Austria-Taiwan Association.
Lin also visited the Belvedere Palace, a museum which will co-host an exhibition with Taiwan’s National Museum of History in December. His visit to Austria was the first by a high-ranking Taiwanese official in decades, according to ORF, the national public broadcaster in Austria.
Lin’s entire European trip was conducted under the Taiwan Culture in Europe 2025 initiative. Liberty Times reported after Lin returned to Taiwan that the foreign and culture ministries have already decided to extend this initiative into 2026.
United States
Lin visited the U.S. and New York the week of the United Nations General Assembly, to which Taiwan is famously not invited. He published an op-ed prior to the trip arguing that the U.N. should include Taiwan. Lin’s trip was publicized by the president of Palau, Surangel S. Whipps Jr., who shared pictures on Facebook of himself at a party with Lin and Alexander Yui (俞大㵢), Taiwan’s representative to the U.S.
Reuters said it was the first time a Taiwanese foreign minister was known to have been in New York during the U.N. General Assembly week. His presence came two months after Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te (賴清德) canceled a trip to Latin America after the U.S. reportedly denied him permission to transit through New York due to trade negotiations with China.
Alexander Gray, who runs the geopolitical consulting firm American Global Strategies that hosted the event in New York Lin attended, said that he thought Taiwan must have cleared Lin’s visit with the administration: “TECRO [the Taiwan representative office in the U.S.] is very sensitive to these things, so I assumed there was some level of coordination.”
Poland
Lin is currently visiting Poland, having left Taiwan on September 27. He addressed the Warsaw Security Forum on September 29.
On September 28, Lin witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding to provide aid to disadvantaged children in Kyiv, between Jeff Liu (劉永健), head of the Taipei Representative Office in Poland, and Tetiana Badylevych, deputy director of the Kyiv City Center for Social Services for Families, Children and Youth. Ukrainian parliamentarians were also present.
Lin witnessed the signing of another memorandum of understanding on September 30, between Jeff Liu, on behalf of Taiwan foreign ministry, and Community of Democracies Secretary General Dr. Mantas Adomenas.
The Community of Democracies, an intergovernmental coalition that promotes democracy, said the memorandum “establishes a framework for cooperation to advance shared goals in democracy promotion, human rights, support for civil society, and strengthening the rule of law.”
I don’t know what you did last summer — where was Lin Chia-lung on September 14, 15 and 16?
Liberty Times reported that Lin visited another country in Europe during his first September trip. This visit was not announced due to a tacit agreement with the host government. The stop apparently followed Prague and preceded Rome. Other media, both Taiwanese and international, have not picked up this reporting.
However, there are three days in Lin’s schedule that are unaccounted for. It appears that his last reported activity in Czechia was prior to September 14, and his first reported engagement in Italy was on September 17.
Liberty Times stated, without providing a source, that Chinese personnel monitored some of Lin’s activities during his visit to the unknown location. The other countries Lin visited after Czechia were not released in advance, in order to decrease Chinese pressure on those hosting the foreign minister. This and the fact that details of his later spots were broken after he left appears to have obscured the hole in his itinerary.
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