The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday confirmed a Pacific Magazine report that Taiwan helped to pay Kiribati’s debt to Air Pacific, but denied the figure was US$3 million as reported.
The bailout plan was a “one-time arrangement” based on certain conditions, said Victor Yu (于德勝), head of the ministry’s Department of East Asia and Pacific Affairs.
The width of Kiribati, if measured from the easternmost island to the furthest west, is almost the same as the width of the continental US, and the flight that links Kiribati’s capital, Tarawa, to Hawaii via Christmas Island was the country’s major connection to the outside world, Yu told the Taipei Times.
Pacific Magazine said the charter flight was halted because Kiribati had defaulted on its payments to the Fiji-based airline since February this year.
The report also said Taiwan paid more than US$3 million to help resume the service and that the funding included advance payments up to next January.
Yu refused to divulge the exact amount of the aid package, but said the figure was well below the reported number.
The suspension of the air route could deal a severe blow to Kiribati’s economy, he said.
Yu said Taiwan agreed to step in after a thorough review that concluded its ally was facing an emergency.
“Unlike what the report said, we did not pay off the entire debt for Kiribati. We only paid for some of the reserved seats to enable Kiribati officials to fly in and out of the island for the purpose of economic and commercial matters,” Yu said.
Yu said the bailout plan was part of the nation’s annual aid to the pacific island and that Taiwan had made it clear that this was a one-time deal based on the urgency of the situation.
Kiribati forged diplomatic ties with Taipei in 2003 after it switched allegiance from Beijing.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS