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.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
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