Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that Ireland's policy on China and Taiwan has not changed, despite reports in Chinese state media following his meeting in Dublin with Chinese premier Li Qiang.
Earlier, CGTN quoted Mr Varadkar as saying that Ireland "will always abide by the one-China principle, and hopes that China will achieve peaceful reunification at an early date".
However, Mr Varadkar said Ireland supported the One China "policy" on Taiwan, which is distinct from the One China "principle".
He said: "I reaffirmed our policy, which is the One China policy, that we recognise that Taiwan is part of China.
"And while we don't have diplomatic or political links with Taiwan, we continue to have economic and cultural links."
The One China principle is the policy of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.
It holds that there is only one sovereign state under the name China, with China serving as the sole legitimate government of that China, and that China has "inalienable" rights over Taiwan.
However, the One China policy was evolved by the United States.
It is regarded as "strategic ambiguity" that allows the US to recognise the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole and legitimate government of China, while permitting unofficial links with Taiwan, which seeks to maintain independence from China.
The Taoiseach was speaking on his arrival in Davos, where he is tonight attending a dinner for multinational CEOs hosted by IDA Ireland.
Attendees include senior figures from Metronic, Stripe, Astra Zeneca, Open AI, Hewlett Packard, LinkedIn, Mastercard, Ericsson and Salesforce.
Mr Varadkar is expected to meet Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo this evening, where the issue of the war in Gaza will be raised.
He said: "Belgium is one of the countries that has a very similar position on the Middle East who wants to see a ceasefire, or wants to see a two-state solution being pressed by the European Union.
"We're going to take a chance to meet this evening and to compare notes and to coordinate. And that's something that we'll be doing on an ongoing basis.
"Certainly, there are a number of like-minded countries within the European Union that have been pressing for a ceasefire from the earliest days of this conflict because we want humanitarian aid to get in, we want the killing to stop, the violence to stop.
"We also want the hostages to be released and a ceasefire is a step towards achieving that.
"But we also want the European Union to be more active in pressing for a two-state solution and the recognition of Palestinian statehood."
