The Presidential Office yesterday dismissed speculation that the country’s diplomatic ties with Honduras were shaky as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) prepares to visit the country one day later than scheduled.
Saying that arrangements for Ma’s visit were still being made, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) added that Ma would likely stay in Panama for one more day because Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya may still be out of the country the day Ma had originally planned to arrive, despite Zelaya’s pledge that he would have returned by then.
“To avoid any misunderstandings, we decided to stay in Panama for one more day,” Wang said, dismissing speculation that the decision stemmed from unfriendly moves by Tegucigalpa toward Taiwan.
Wang said Taiwan’s relationship with its ally was sound and that both sides had fully cooperated during negotiations.
It has been widely reported that Tegucigalpa is unhappy with Ma’s foreign aid policy. Some local media have speculated that Ma had planned to visit Honduras during his last state visit to Central America earlier this month, but decided to postpone it.
When Ma met Zelaya earlier this month in El Salvador, Ma said he would stop providing more funding to Honduras for the construction of a hydraulic power plant and instead offer technical support while letting the Honduran government raise the remainder of the money on its own.
Ma will make state visits to three Central American countries later this month. The main purpose of the trip is to attend the inauguration of Panamanian president-elect Ricardo Martinelli on Wednesday.
The 169-person delegation will depart on Monday and return on July 8, with transfer stops in San Francisco on the way there and in Honolulu on the way back. The trip will also take Ma to Nicaragua and Honduras.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
RSS