Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes has reassured Taiwan that his country will continue to maintain cordial and stable diplomatic relations with Taiwan after he shared a stage with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at an international event, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Cartes attended an event organized by the embassy of the Republic of China to Paraguay in Asuncion on Friday and told Ambassador Jose Maria Liu (劉德立) that the diplomatic relationship between the two countries would remain the same, said an official at the ministry, who wished to remain anonymous.
In response to media inquiries, the ministry yesterday confirmed that Cartes had attended the summit between China and presidents of 11 countries belonging to the Union of South American Nations, known as UNASUR, on Wednesday last week in Brasilia, Brazil, where he met with Xi.
The ministry’s understanding was that Cartes was at the summit because Paraguay is a member of UNASUR and that he left early because he had other engagements back in Paraguay, ministry spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) said.
Kao said that the ministry was assured that there was no bilateral meeting between Cartes and Xi when they were both at the summit.
The anonymous official said that Cartes was present at the opening reception of the event in Asuncion held to showcase achievements of bilateral cooperative projects and he told Liu that his conversation with Xi did not go beyond ordinary greetings.
After attending the sixth summit of BRICs on July 15 in Fortaleza, Brazil, and the meeting with UNASUR on Wednesday, Xi had a meeting with leaders of the “Quartet” members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States — Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador and Antigua and Barbuda — on Thursday last week.
Xi concluded his week-long trip to Latin America yesterday after visiting Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
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