President Chen Shui-bian (
During the past four years, Chen often took such trips as an opportunity to promote "stopover diplomacy" by visiting major US cities to break through China's diplomatic blockade. But this time he has planned a relatively pragmatic trip that mainly focuses on Taiwan-Panama relations.
The diplomatic ties between Taiwan and Panama have been shaken as China has constantly tried to lure it to over recently. Therefore, the inauguration ceremony of Panamanian President-elect Martin Torrijos tomorrow is a diplomatic battlefield where the nation must fight.
This is also why Chen is visiting Panama instead of sending an envoy. His personal visit may have a significant impact on whether Taiwan-Panama relations can be improved.
Apart from the interaction between Taiwan's and Panama's leaders, the push for a free trade agreement between the two countries also serves as a key index to the friendship.
It has been a year since the nations signed a free trade agreement, and no clear progress has been made since then. Perhaps Chen can examine the situation personally and push for the free trade pact.
The free trade agreement was the first of its kind signed by Taiwan and an allied nation so it has a symbolic meaning, and is crucial to the nation's future global economic and trade arrangements. The government must cautiously push it forward.
Chen will give Belizian President Said Musa a ride when he flies to Belize on Sept. 2. This will be a new diplomatic move, showing that Taiwan and Belize are old friends not restricted by formalities. This arrangement will benefit the friendship of the two countries and their leaders.
During Chen's weeklong trip, there are only three days on which he will be able to sleep in a real bed, and his schedule is packed to the limit. This trip seeks to achieve routine diplomatic objectives of consolidating the nation's relationship with its allies.
Although the focus of this trip will not be on Chen's transit in the US, numerous members of the Senate and Congress have said they could pay their respects and overseas Chinese will come out to show their welcome.
Despite these gestures, it is a wise decision for Chen to keep a low profile and avoid political controversy while passing through the US during the campaign season.
Putting aside the hype of stopover diplomacy and returning to the realities of the diplomatic battlefield, the gatherings Chen will attend in Panama and the behind-the-scenes negotiations that accompany them are all ways of furthering the interaction of nations and winning diplomatic points through friendships with other heads of state.
Chen's trip to Panama is also a chance for the president to walk out from the shadow of the 319 shooting incident and confidently achieve diplomatic goals.
What began on Feb. 28 as a military campaign against Iran quickly became the largest energy-supply disruption in modern times. Unlike the oil crises of the 1970s, which stemmed from producer-led embargoes, US President Donald Trump is the first leader in modern history to trigger a cascading global energy crisis through direct military action. In the process, Trump has also laid bare Taiwan’s strategic and economic fragilities, offering Beijing a real-time tutorial in how to exploit them. Repairing the damage to Persian Gulf oil and gas infrastructure could take years, suggesting that elevated energy prices are likely to persist. But the most
In late January, Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), completed its first submerged dive, reaching a depth of roughly 50m during trials in the waters off Kaohsiung. By March, it had managed a fifth dive, still well short of the deep-water and endurance tests required before the navy could accept the vessel. The original delivery deadline of November last year passed months ago. CSBC Corp, Taiwan, the lead contractor, now targets June and the Ministry of National Defense is levying daily penalties for every day the submarine remains unfinished. The Hai Kun was supposed to be
The Legislative Yuan on Friday held another cross-party caucus negotiation on a special act for bolstering national defense that the Executive Yuan had proposed last year. The party caucuses failed to reach a consensus on several key provisions, so the next session is scheduled for today, where many believe substantial progress would finally be made. The plan for an eight-year NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.59 billion) special defense budget was first proposed by the Cabinet in November last year, but the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers have continuously blocked it from being listed on the agenda for
On Tuesday last week, the Presidential Office announced, less than 24 hours before he was scheduled to depart, that President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned official trip to Eswatini, Taiwan’s sole diplomatic ally in Africa, had been delayed. It said that the three island nations of Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar had, without prior notice, revoked the charter plane’s overflight permits following “intense pressure” from China. Lai, in his capacity as the Republic of China’s (ROC) president, was to attend the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession. King Mswati visited Taiwan to attend Lai’s inauguration in 2024. This is the first
RSS