Taiwan yesterday decided to issue US$10,000 in aid to its Pacific diplomatic ally Solomon Islands in the wake of a savage cyclone that hit two remote islands in the country last weekend.
"We decided to grant US$10,000 of humanitarian aid to the country to express the concerns of our government and people towards our ally," said Peter Cheng (鄭博久), director general of the foreign ministry's department of East Asian and Pacific affairs.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) yesterday approved suggestions made by Teng Pei-yin (鄧備殷), Taiwan's representative to the Solomon Islands, in his telegram with regards to the amount of aid to the country, Cheng said.
The aid came at a time when the debt-stricken Pacific state struggled to finance a large-scale rescue and relief operation in the wake of the devastating storms last Saturday.
Cyclone Zoe on Saturday hit the islands of Tikopia and Anuta, two of the most remote islets in the Solomon Islands chains, although the damage remained unknown due to the delay in relief and rescue operations.
The cyclone, believed to be the most powerful Pacific storms on record, blasted the islets with winds estimated to have reached 350kph.
A ship carrying aid departed the Solomon Islands capital Honiara on Thursday and is expected to reach the two isles -- with an estimated population of around 3,700 -- today, related reports quoted coordinators in Honiara as saying.
A second relief boat was slated to leave yesterday.
A civil war has torn the nation apart. Back in August, Taiwan issued a US$1 million check to the country's prime minister in the wake of the chaos in Honiara.
The police then erected razor-wire barricades around the prime minister's office and the finance department because the country was facing bankruptcy.
RSS