Taiwan will not recall its ambassador to Nicaragua after President Daniel Ortega, apologized to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for his absence at a state banquet held on Friday for Ma, a senior foreign affairs official in Taipei said yesterday.
Ma expressed concern after Ortega did not meet him at the airport when he arrived in Managua on Friday morning and skipped a state banquet he was supposed to host for Ma later the same day, the senior official said.
Diplomatic ties between the two countries will not be affected after Ma accepted Ortega’s explanation for not appearing at the banquet, the senior official said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Following Ortega’s perceived snubs on Friday, Taiwan demanded a clear apology from the Nicaraguan government and threatened to suspend aid to the country if Ortega did not show up as scheduled to attend a site dedication ceremony for a product display center, a government official said on Saturday in Managua.
After realizing Taipei’s strong feelings on the matter, Ortega headed to the hotel where Ma was staying on Saturday to offer his apologies for not appearing at the banquet.
Ortega said he could not make it because he was in discussions with Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who was also in Nicaragua at the time, on the emergency situation in the Central American country, the Taiwanese official said.
Ortega said the two spoke all night about the situation before Zelaya flew to Washington, where Zelaya attended an emergency meeting over the Honduran coup held by the Organization of American States, the official said.
Zelaya was ousted in a military coup on June 28 when troops arrested him and sent him into exile in Costa Rica.
Speculation has arisen, however, that Ortega’s absences were in response to attempts by the Ma administration to track remittances by the former Democratic Progressive Party administration to Nicaragua.
Upon his arrival at the hotel, the Nicaraguan president hugged his Taiwanese counterpart and chatted with Ma for 10 minutes, before driving him to a banquet hosted by Taiwan’s expatriate community in the country and then attending the product display center ceremony, the official said.
At the banquet, Ortega gave assurances that Nicaragua would maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
On Friday night, Ambassador to Nicaragua Wu Ching-mu (吳進木) offered to resign from his post to take responsibility for the manner in which Ma had been treated. Ortega also apologized to Wu by hugging him and saying that he should take the blame for causing so much trouble. He also praised Wu for his hard work in arranging Ma’s visit.
Accepting Ortega’s explanation, Ma said he understood the importance of the meeting between Ortega and Zelaya because the coup was closely related to the future of both countries.
In Taipei, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴), a former foreign minister, said the president should consider recalling the ambassador to Nicaragua.
“It was very impolite of Ortega not to show up. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should voice its strongest protest by considering recalling our ambassador to Nicaragua because we cannot compromise the dignity of our nation,” Chiang said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS