Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) is scheduled to leave for St. Vincent and the Grenadines tomorrow to attend an annual meeting with his counterparts from Taiwan's four Eastern Caribbean allies, the ministry announced yesterday.
Chien will lead a five-member delegation to the meeting to be held early next Friday, the ministry said.
Chien, along with his counterparts from Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, will discuss matters of mutual interest, the ministry said.
"The minister will spend two days traveling to St. Vincent, stay in the country for three days and spend another two days returning to Taiwan," said ministry spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦).
The minister will make transit stops in Los Angeles and Miami in the US, Shih said, but does not have plans to attend meetings in these cities.
"The main purpose of the meeting is to expand and strengthen our exchanges and cooperation in the political, economic, trade, cultural and educational fields and to reinforce the friendship between the ROC and its Eastern Caribbean allies through extensive and thorough discussions," the ministry said in a statement.
The annual meeting was inaugurated in 1997. In the past six years, the meetings were alternatively held in the capitals of the Eastern Caribbean allies and Taipei.
During his stay in St. Vincent, the minister will also call upon St. Vincent's Governor-General and Prime Minister as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs to exchange views on world affairs and on bilateral cooperation between the two countries in various diverse fields, the ministry said.
Chien will donate wheelchairs and present a fund for medical equipment purchases to St. Vincent as well as attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the Layou Learning Resource Community Center financed by Taiwan, the ministry said.
The minister will visit Taiwan's embassy and agricultural technological mission stationed in St. Vincent.
Chien and his delegation are scheduled to return to Taiwan on Aug. 11, the ministry said.
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