In a sign that Taiwan is becoming Albania's diplomatic pawn, the founder of the Association of Friendship between Albania and Taiwan has called on members to avoid any "political functions" in the organization.
In a press conference last Thursday, Neritan Ceka, the founder and honorary president of the Albania-Taiwan association, announced his resignation from his post, citing a shift in China's position toward Albania as the reason for his decision.
Beijing has "expressed the desire to become a serious economic partner with Albania," he said. Ceka, who is also a parliamentarian, called on other legislators and members of the association to withdraw their membership, saying the organization should be stripped of its political functions.
"This association can remain in the business of establishing trade relations with Taiwan, but free of any political stripes," he said.
Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently denied allegations that it was ready to swap US$1 billion in exchange for diplomatic recognition from Albania.
A Reuters report quoted Pellumb Shullazi, an Albanian legislator and deputy chairman of the association, as saying that Taiwan's envoy in Macedonia, Peter Cheng (
Albania, meanwhile, appears to be playing Taiwan against China in order to gain economic concessions from Beijing.
Albania's defense minister, Luan Hajdaraga, was in China when speculation about the cash-for-ties deal first broke in the news.
The Balkan state's president, Rexhep Meidani, is currently in Beijing at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart, Jiang Zemin (
Meidani departed for China over the weekend, saying he hopes to increase economic cooperation between Albania and China through Beijing's assistance in the economic restructuring of his nation, Xinhua reported.
Historically, Albania has maintained strong ties with China.
Beijing was one of the biggest aid donors to the Balkan state in the 1970s and Tirana actively assisted China in ousting the Republic of China from the UN in 1971.
But in the Kosovo crisis, in which more than half a million Kosovar Albanians were driven from their homeland, Beijing sided with Yugoslavia and strongly protested against NATO intervention.
Macedonia, Taiwan's only foothold in the Balkan region, established diplomatic relations with the island in January 1999.
To strengthen its presence in the region, Taiwan has offered US$300 million in aid to Kosovo for refugee relief and reconstruction.
So far, Taiwan has delivered an estimated US$4.5 million -- around US$2 million to US$3 million was disbursed through NGOs and US$2 million was spent donating buses to Kosovo.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
DANGEROUS DRIVERS: The proposal follows a fatal incident on Monday involving a 78-year-old driver, which killed three people and injured 12 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said it would lower the age for elderly drivers to renew their license from 75 to 70 as part of efforts to address safety issues caused by senior motorists. The new policy was proposed in light of a deadly incident on Monday in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽), in which a 78-year-old motorist surnamed Yu (余) sped through a school zone, killing three people and injuring 12. Last night, another driver sped down a street in Tainan’s Yuching District (玉井), killing one pedestrian and injuring two. The incidents have sparked public discussion over whether seniors
RSS