The Marshall Islands and Taiwan will enjoy a strong friendship for many decades to come, the leader of the Pacific island country said on Tuesday, touting the close relationship between the nations since the establishment of diplomatic ties 10 years ago.
Marshal Islands President Litokwa Tomeing, visiting Taiwan for the first time as the president, affirmed that Taiwan-Marshall Islands relations remain firm.
"Taiwan has made many valuable and practical contributions to the people of the Marshall Islands. The relations between the two nations will only grow stronger for the next decade or more," he said in an interview with the Taipei Times.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN HUEI, TAIWAN TIMES
Ties were called in question late last year when Tomeing won the seat after staunch pro-China rhetoric during his campaign.
The former speaker was quoted last November as saying the Marshall Islands had "wronged China" by recognizing Taiwan in 1998 and that he planned to adopt a "one China" policy once in office.
Taiwan quickly reacted by accusing Beijing of injecting large sums of money to sway the election.
But so far both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Majuro have stressed that relations between the two countries are stable.
The relationship was further buttressed in January when Vice President Annette Lu (
Since establishing relations with the country in 1998, Taiwan has become Majuro's second largest donor -- behind the US -- by providing an annual financial package of US$10 million.
Taiwan also provides humanitarian assistance in the form of medical and agricultural missions.
When asked how he plans to strike a balance between the pro-China and pro-Taiwan voices in his government, he simply said that the Marshall Islands has an "open-door policy" to welcome all those who seek the country's friendship.
"The country has no enemies," Tomeing said.
He added that he believes cross-strait problems should remain solely between Taiwan and China.
"We support Taiwan because it is a democratic country. The Republic of the Marshall Islands government has confidence that the two countries will reach a mutual understanding," he said, adding that "only time can tell" when and how the issue will be resolved.
Tomeing said he believed that Taiwan could increase its pool of friends in the Pacific by continuing to display its goodwill.
"So long as Taiwan continues to demonstrate its strength in terms of goodwill toward Pacific allies, the world will see its friendly gesture," he said.
"Eventually, the nations that are not in Taiwan's corner will see the advantage of recognizing Taiwan as an independent country," he said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS