President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) will lead an official delegation to attend Pope Francis’ inauguration Mass in Rome on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The five-member delegation will leave for Rome tomorrow evening to attend the Mass at 9:30am on Tuesday and fly back to Taiwan that evening. The three other members of the delegation are National Security Council Secretary-General Jason Yuan (袁健生), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vanessa Shih (史亞平) and Fu Jen Catholic University president Vincent Chiang (江漢聲).
Shih said the Holy See has invited the president to visit some churches during his short trip. Ma will also visit the nation’s embassy and meet with Taiwanese Catholic groups in Rome.
In light of Ma’s planned trip, Beijing yesterday renewed its demands for concessions from the Vatican in their long-running battle for supremacy over Chinese Catholics and called on Taiwan to “bear in mind the overall situation and deal prudently with sensitive issues.”
Shih dismissed Beijing’s call for the Vatican to sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and said the city-state remained a strongly supportive ally of Taiwan.
“The diplomatic ties between the Republic of China [ROC] and the Vatican remain strong, and we believe the Holy See cherishes our friendship deeply. The president’s trip to Rome is the best example of our strong ties with the Holy See,” she said.
The ROC and the Vatican established diplomatic ties in 1942.
The Vatican’s top envoy to Taiwan, Monsignor Paul Russell, said the Holy See “will be very happy” to welcome Ma and “will receive him with every honor.”
Russell said the Holy See is grateful to Ma for his congratulatory message on the occasion of the election of Pope Francis.
The last time a Taiwanese president visited the Vatican was in 2005, when then-president Chen Shui-bian attended the funeral of pope John Paul II.
An incensed Beijing refused to send a representative and filed a protest to Italy for issuing Chen a visa.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected as Pope Francis on Wednesday. Shih said the ministry first planned for the first couple to attend the new pope’s inauguration followed the resignation of pope Benedict XVI, and began preparations for the trip immediately after the new pope was elected.
The ministry did not announce Ma’s trip until yesterday. Its decision to invite only two media outlets — the Central News Agency and SET-TV — to cover the event also raised protests from other media outlets.
After confirming the first couple’s attendance on Thursday, the ministry informed the two news outlets later that night to prepare for the trip to Rome. The ministry will cover the expenses of the trip for the accompanying journalists.
Shih blamed the controversial selection of media outlets on the limited time to prepare for the trip and said the ministry and the Presidential Office tried to make a fair selection by inviting the two media outlets, which are on the rotational shift next week to cover Ma’s events in the Presidential Office, to cover the trip.
“As the two media outlets will provide news and footage for local press and TV stations, the ministry will pay for their trips,” she said.
According to the ministry’s plan, the delegation will fly to Rome at 11:20pm tomorrow night via chartered plane and will take the chartered flight back to Taiwan at 22:30pm on Tuesday.
Shih said the ministry has instructed the representative office in Rome to arrange for a courtesy visa for the first couple to meet international conventions.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan and AFP
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