Nicaragua reaffirmed its diplomatic loyalty to Taiwan yesterday, denouncing Costa Rica for switching recognition to Beijing and urging the international community to re-examine UN Resolution 2758 -- the resolution recently cited by the UN Secretariat as a basis for excluding Taiwan from the world body.
Nicaraguan Vice President Jaime Morales Carazo told the second convention of the Democratic Pacific Union (DPU) in Taipei yesterday morning that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega had asked him to convey to the gathering that Nicaraguan-Taiwan relations were steadfast.
Morales said that Taiwan was a role model for many countries and it did not make sense for such a "diligent, creative and cooperative" country to be barred from the UN.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Morales called on the international community to re-examine Resolution 2758 in the wake of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's claim that the resolution states that Taiwan is part of China.
Morales expressed regret over Costa Rica switching its diplomatic recognition to China.
"We do not agree with such action," he said. "You cannot be too business-minded and let outside political forces decide who should be your ally or foe."
Another keynote speaker, Palauan Vice President Elias Camsek Chin, said that it was time for the world to recognize Taiwan for its success as a nation and that the nation's membership in the UN and WHO is undeniable.
"Taiwan has provided many of us the tools necessary to succeed and Taiwan has shown leadership necessary of world leaders," he said.
"Now it is time for the world to give Taiwan the opportunity it deserves ... Taiwan is Palau's closest friend and we intend to repay that friendship with our passion. I call upon this organization's members and neighboring countries to join us in this effort," he said.
Vice President Annette Lu (
She wants to advance democratization through the Pacific Congressional Caucus (a DPU sub-group); to launch a multilateral security forum to address traditional and non-traditional security issues and to promote regional industrial and economic collaboration and business investment.
Lu also plans to protect the global environment and respond to natural disasters through the Pacific Disaster Reduction Center, and to create an Internet community in the Pacific region via the Pacific University League, which was established on Monday.
President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen also said the rise of China must be accompanied by an awakening of peace and the development of democracy to ensure that it becomes a positive power in the Pacific democratic community,
Chen said that he was particularly touched by what Ortega had once told him -- that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who have 1,000 cups of water and those who have only one cup but shares it with others.
Taiwan is the latter, Chen quoted Ortega as saying.
Morales said that Nicaragua is the kind of country that shares its one cup of water with others, although it is small in size.
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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