The Presidential Office is still evaluating whether President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will visit diplomatic allies in Central and South America early next year, said an official familiar with the matter.
The official, who requested not to be named, made the statement following a Saturday report in the Chinese-language United Evening News that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is arranging for Ma to attend the inauguration of Honduras’ new president and maybe to visit allies in the region.
“Such travel proposal is still being evaluated,” the official told the reporters.
Ministry spokeswoman Anna Kao (高安) also declined to comment on the newspaper report, saying only that the Republic of China (ROC) has maintained a close relationship with Honduras, and officials from the two countries visit each other frequently.
Kao said that Honduran President-elect Juan Hernandez has been friendly toward the ROC and has visited Taiwan during his tenure as speaker of the Honduran National Congress.
ROC Ambassador to Honduras Joseph Kuo (郭永樑) met with Hernandez following his win in the Central American country’s presidential election on Nov. 24 to convey Ma’s congratulations on his electoral success, Kao said.
The Honduran presidential inauguration is scheduled for Jan. 27 next year.
Meanwhile, a ministry official said yesterday that all Taiwanese diplomatic personnel stationed in the Gambia and their Gambian counterparts in Taiwan will head to their respective homes by Wednesday, a month after the two countries formally broke off diplomatic ties.
The withdrawal of embassy personnel has entered the final phase, said the official, who asked not to be named.
Diplomatic workers from either country are required to leave their posts by that date, with exceptions only for personnel dealing with “major issues” that cannot be resolved within the time frame.
Taiwan terminated diplomatic relations with the Gambia on Nov. 18, three days after Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, surprised Taipei with a unilateral announcement ending 18 years of formal ties.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
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Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard