President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will take the opportunity when visiting Taiwan’s South Pacific allies to drum up support for the country’s bid to participate in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said yesterday.
Yang said that Ma hoped to let Taiwan’s allies know that it not only “attaches great importance to the issue of climate change and empathizes with their situation,” but also “would like to work with them” to tackle the problem.
Taiwan is also keen to share its experience of developing alternative energy industries with its allies, especially Tuvalu, Marshall Islands and Kiribati, atoll countries highly vulnerable to climate change, Yang told a press conference yesterday.
Ma and a 90-member entourage, including the Formosa Aboriginal Song and Dance Troupe (原舞者), reporters, five Aboriginal lawmakers and officials, will also visit Nauru, the Solomon Islands and Palau.
MOFA originally arranged for Ma to attend a leadership summit between Taiwan and the six nations last October, but the plan was postponed because of Typhoon Morakot.
“The President has decided to take an approach that differs from previous summit meetings ... to show that we are very concerned about and value the development of the region,” Yang said.
The visits will also demonstrate Taiwan’s determination to actively promote cooperative projects with allies: a sanitation and healthcare project focused on ophthalmology will help the Marshall Islands treat eye disorders and there is a plan to set up a fishery incubation center and hatchery in Kiribati.
Taiwan will help Tuvalu with job training for its fishing industry, assist Nauru to be self-sufficient in at least six kinds of agricultural and livestock products within three years, equip the Solomon Islands’ parliament building with solar panels and hold an exhibition to showcase Taiwan’s Aboriginal culture in Palau, Yang said.
The delegation will leave on on Sunday and return on March 27, with a 60-minute and 90-minute refueling stopover at a civilian airport in Guam on the way there and back respectively.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
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