President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen spent Wednesday morning conducting talks with outgoing Nicaraguan president Enrique Bolanos, as well as the heads of state of the nation's diplomatic allies Honduras, Belize and Panama.
Bolanos praised Taiwan's democratic achievements, and Chen invited Bolanos to visit the country after he finishes his term as Nicaraguan president.
PHOTO: AFP
Belizean Prime Minister Said Wilbert Musa told Chen that he hoped to visit Taiwan in April, after Chen extended an invitation to him at the meeting.
Musa said he was aware of the many difficulties Chen had faced last year, and that he hoped Chen could overcome them.
He pledged to firmly support Taiwan during his term as chairman of the System of Central American Integration (SICA), despite China's efforts to seek assistance from other members to participate in SICA activities.
The Belizean prime minister also emphasized his country's continuing support for Taiwan's bids to join international organizations such as the UN and WHO.
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya reiterated his country's support for Taiwan and expressed the hope that the two countries would be able to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) soon.
Chen said that the pact could be inked during the first half of this year.
He also invited Panamanian President Martin Torrijos to visit Taiwan, saying that Torrijos could come for a ride on the nation's first bullet train system.
In the afternoon, Chen met Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.
Chen said that Taiwan, which is a member of APEC, would be happy to help Costa Rica realize its dream of becoming the first country in Central America to gain access to the economic bloc.
Arias said that the Costa Rican parliament had passed a resolution to sign an FTA with Taiwan and hoped that the Taiwanese legislature would make a similar declaration soon.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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