The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday welcomed Taiwan’s inclusion in the UK’s six-month visa-waiver program and said the government was considering reciprocating the offer.
The UK is the 31st county to grant Taiwanese visa-free privilege. Other countries include some of Taiwan’s allies and a few non-allies such as South Korea, Singapore and Japan.
The British Trade and Cultural Office (BTCO) said yesterday that starting on March 3, Republic of China (ROC) passport holders who wish to visit the UK for less than six months for business or tourism purposes, family visits or as students and who won’t be working there will no longer require a visa.
“Britain enjoys strong commercial and cultural ties with Taiwan,” BTCO’s new director David Campbell said. “Lifting the visa requirement for stays of less than six months will help to build on that to the benefit of both British and Taiwanese people.”
“We believe Taiwan’s inclusion in the visa-waiver program will encourage more Taiwanese tourists to visit Britain and help promote more exchanges among the two peoples,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said.
The UK made the decision after it concluded that Taiwan had satisfied all the criteria required by the UK Border Agency based on a worldwide review of regime carried out in 2007 and last year.
In his farewell press conference last month, former BTCO director Michael Reilly said London’s “only real area of concern” on admitting Taiwan to the visa-waiver program was the massive migration of Chinese illegal aliens into the UK, saying such privilege could encourage the Chinese use to use ROC passports to smuggle people into the UK.
“The problem of fraudulent documentation or false documentation is a problem around the world. How we address that is to have very close links with migration authorities around the world and that certainly includes Taiwan,” Campbell said, adding that the UK enjoys close and regular contacts with Taiwanese authorities and that those ties would be further cemented in the future.
Asked if London is worried that ROC passports might become an attractive tool for smuggling rings, Campbell said: “I am aware that in recent months, Taiwan has undertaken a number of developments and it is certainly a shared interest around the world to try and combat misuse of documentation.”
“We are confident that with those expert contacts we have that risks such as that can be managed,” he said.
Bureau of Consular Affairs Chief Lo Yu-chung (羅由中) said the announcement showed that London appreciated Taiwan’s issuance of electronic passports. Lu urged other countries to follow the UK’s lead.
BTCO said Taiwanese visiting the UK under the visa-waiver program still had to satisfy authorities at their port of entry that they meet the UK’s admission requirements and must have with them supporting documents such as return flight tickets, evidence of funding, letters from sponsors or the businesses they are visiting, or the school they plan to study at.
The BTCO received more than 28,000 visa applications last year.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
BIG SPENDERS: Foreign investors bought the most Taiwan equities since 2005, signaling confidence that an AI boom would continue to benefit chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market capitalization swelled to US$2 trillion for the first time following a 4.25 percent rally in its American depositary receipts (ADR) overnight, putting the world’s biggest contract chipmaker sixth on the list of the world’s biggest companies by market capitalization, just behind Amazon.com Inc. The site CompaniesMarketcap.com ranked TSMC ahead of Saudi Aramco and Meta Platforms Inc. The Taiwanese company’s ADRs on Tuesday surged to US$385.75 on the New York Stock Exchange, as strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications led to chip supply constraints and boost revenue growth to record-breaking levels. Each TSMC ADR represents
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS