A sister-city agreement between Greater Kaohsiung and the Maldivian capital, Male, was declared invalid by the Maldivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday, one day after the pact was signed.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official in Taipei yesterday said it was the first time a local government’s efforts to establish sister-city ties with a foreign city had been thwarted due to apparent pressure from China.
The Greater Kaohsiung Government has not yet responded to the Maldivian statement, posted on the Web site of the Maldivian ministry, which said that the government of the Maldives “does not recognize the memorandum of understanding.”
Photo courtesy of the Kaohsiung City
The government reaffirms its commitment and support to China’s national unity and to the “one China” policy, the statement said.
The Maldives’ firm belief in the “one China” policy is guided by the principles of respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in the internal affairs of states and it considers Taiwan an integral part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the statement said.
China is a very important development partner for the Maldives and the government of the Maldives will continue to work with the PRC government to strengthen the close ties of friendship and cooperation that exist between the two countries, the statement said.
The signing ceremony was held on Sunday, just hours after a delegation of Greater Kaohsiung Government officials led by Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) arrived in Male for the four-day visit. The main purpose of trip was to sign the agreement.
The delegation is scheduled to return home tomorrow.
A Greater Kaohsiung Government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to reporters, said the idea for the sister-city link was proposed by Male Mayor Maizan Ali Maniku when he visited Greater Kaohsiung in November last year.
Ali Maniku and his delegation were interested in learning about Kaohsiung’s experience in promoting sustainable development, the official said.
Ali Maniku met with Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and they decided to become sister cities to forge a partnership on sustainable development, the official said. The two sides had discussions that led to the signing of the agreement covering urban infrastructure, tourism, the environment and the social and cultural arenas, she said.
Greater Kaohsiung was the first city in the nation to become a formal municipal member of Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), which was founded in 1990 as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.
The ICLEI designated Greater Kaohsiung as one of its seven mentor cities in May last year in recognition of its achievements in promoting sustainable development.
At last year’s ICLEI World Congress, Greater Kaohsiung was assigned to mentor Male and help it facilitate sustainability.
A press release from the Greater Kaohsiung Government said the delegation had shared with its hosts the city’s experience in drainage pipeline network management, waste disposal, offshore submerged breakwaters, plant diseases and pest control, and solar power development. The delegation also conducted a field study of Male’s construction of a rainwater sewer system, erosion-prone sea embankment and how it deals with waste disposal and processes raw kitchen waste, the press release said.
Male would have been Greater Kaohsiung’s 28th sister city and Kaohsiung would have been Male’s second.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS