An agreement between Taiwan and the Philippines on law enforcement cooperation on fishery matters in their overlapping economic waters is expected to be inked “soon,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday.
The two sides have reached a consensus on signing the agreement and are in the final stages of concluding it, Elliot Charng (常以立), director-general of the ministry’s Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said at a news briefing.
Only some of the wording remains to be resolved, he said when asked about the pact’s progress.
Taiwanese and Philippine officials had previously estimated that the agreement would be signed by the end of this month, but when asked whether this was still the case, Charng refused to be drawn, saying only that it would be finalized “very soon.”
Since last year, Taipei and Manila have been discussing an agreement on maritime law enforcement cooperation, after a Taiwanese fisherman was shot dead on May 9 last year by Philippine Coast Guard officers in waters overlapping the exclusive economic zones of the two countries.
The shooting and Manila’s handling of the incident caused bilateral relations to plunge to their worst in years, with Taiwan imposing a freeze on hiring Filipino workers, among other sanctions.
Bilateral relations returned to normal in August last year, after the Philippines met four Taiwanese demands that included a formal apology and the start of talks on fishery cooperation.
During a subsequent series of fishery meetings, the two sides reached consensus on several issues. These include a ban on the use of force or violence when patrolling fishing grounds, the establishment of a mechanism to inform each other in the event of fishery incidents and the release of detained fishermen and boats as soon as possible.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS