President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) arrived in Panama City on Saturday on her first overseas trip since assuming office on May 20, which also marked the first time that a Taiwanese presidential charter flight crossed Cuban air space.
Tsai was greeted at the Tocumen International Airport in Panama City with a red-carpet ceremony and an enthusiastic welcome by Panamanian officials, as well as nearly 200 Taiwanese expatriates.
Addressing well-wishers at the airport, Tsai said she felt “very honored to be invited by [Panamanian] President [Juan Carlos] Varela to attend the Panama Canal opening ceremony,” and that “on behalf of the Republic of China government and its people,” she wanted to “convey the highest congratulations and greetings to the Panamanian government and its people.”
Photo: CNA
“To be able to take part in the ceremony with leaders and representatives from around the world as well as the Panamanian government and people, I feel it’s like attending a happy event of a good friend, with full expectations and joy,” she said.
The president expressed hope that bilateral Taiwan-Panama relations and the benefits that it would bring for people from both sides would be boosted following her visit to the Central American nation.
A high-ranking government official who asked to remain anonymous told the Chinese-language United Evening News that when former presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) made state visits to Panama, their flights transited via Hawaii and Los Angeles respectively.
The official said that planning the flight route went smoothly and Beijing did not intervene too much, while another diplomatic official, who also asked to remain anonymous, said that in addition to Beijing’s non-interference, Cuba’s re-establishment of diplomatic ties with the US and improved relations with other Western nations were factors, the United Evening News reported.
In 2007, former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) flight was forced to make a more than four-hour detour on a return flight from Nicaragua because Mexico refused passage after reports of pressure from China.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said that China Airlines (中華航空) — which is providing flights for Tsai’s trip — was in charge of planning and that the Presidential Office did not intervene.
China Airlines declined to answer questions regarding the flight route, citing national security concerns.
Tsai said she was surprised to see nearly 400 Taiwanese expatriates at a banquet, as people from China had threatened to organize a boycott.
There were also Taiwanese attendees from Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Brazil at the meal.
On her three-day visit, Tsai was to attend the inauguration ceremony for the Panama Canal Expansion project yesterday.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS