President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said the government would lift its sanctions on the Philippines if Manila responds positively to Taiwan’s requests with regard to the May 9 shooting death of a Taiwanese fisherman by Philippine Coast Guard personnel.
Ma said the government stands firm on its position that the Philippine government should offer a formal apology, compensate the victim’s family, investigate the case, bring those responsible to justice and open fishery negotiations with Taiwan.
He said these were reasonable requests that are consistent with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the UN Charter.
“We are waiting for a response from the Philippines. If there is a positive response, we definitely will lift the sanctions,” Ma said while addressing a military commissioning and promotion ceremony.
The shooting took place in waters about 70km east of Balintang Island in the northern Philippines.
Manila has contended that the Taiwanese boat was poaching in its waters, while Taipei argues that the boat was operating in Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone.
On May 15, Taiwan imposed a series of retaliatory measures against the Philippines, which include suspending the issuance of visas to Filipino workers, issuing a red travel alert for the Philippines and suspending high-level exchanges between the two countries.
Also halted were bilateral economic exchanges, agricultural and fishery cooperation, technology research exchange and cooperation projects, aviation rights negotiations and visa-free treatment for Filipinos.
The two sides have completed their respective investigations into the case, but have yet to release their reports or bring charges against those responsible for the death of the Taiwanese fisherman, 65-year-old Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成).
They have begun talks on fishing rights in waters where the two nations’ exclusive economic zones overlap, which they hope will lead to a formal fisheries agreement. The first meeting was held on June 14.
Ma said that Taiwan signed a similar fisheries agreement with Japan in April that gave Taiwanese fishermen an additional 4,530km2 near the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in which they can operate free of harassment by the Japanese authorities.
The agreement provides a tentative resolution to the decades-long fisheries dispute between the two nations without undermining each other’s territorial claims over the Diaoyutais, he said.
He pledged that the government would continue its efforts to protect Taiwanese fishermen who are operating legally in the nation’s exclusive economic zone and on the high seas.
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
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,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS