Nepal has declined Taiwan’s offer of help with search-and-rescue efforts after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the Himalayan country on Saturday, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrew Kao (高振群) said yesterday.
Kao’s comments came as several Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams were getting ready to leave for Nepal to help look for survivors under collapsed buildings.
Answering questions at the Legislative Yuan, Kao said that Kathmandu has only asked for assistance in search and rescue efforts from neighboring countries like China, India and Pakistan, and cited the great distance and the lack of direct flights and diplomatic relations for declining Taiwan’s offer
Photo: CNA
Taiwan would still send a team to Nepal to assess the need for medical assistance, which Taiwan stands ready to provide, he said.
According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokeswoman Anna Kao (高安), soon after the earthquake occurred, Taiwan’s representative to India, who happened to be in Kathmandu at the time, contacted Nepalese officials and told them that the Taiwanese government was willing to provide assistance.
The Nepalese government decided to first ask neighboring countries to send assistance and declined Taiwan’s offer at that time, she said, adding that Kathmandu said it would contact Taipei if it needed more help, she added.
In related news, the ministry said that as of 4:30pm yesterday, there are still 21 Taiwanese in Nepal who have not yet been accounted for.
There are a total of 204 Taiwanese tourists in Nepal, but the other 183 people have been confirmed safe, Anna Kao said in an update on Taiwan’s efforts to locate its citizens since the earthquake hit Nepal on Saturday, killing thousands.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been obtaining information from its overseas offices, from travel records, travel agencies and the relatives of Taiwan citizens who were in Nepal when the earthquake struck, she said.
She said that a group of 24 National Taiwan University alumni who had traveled to Nepal to climb the Himalayas and had been out of contact since Saturday have now told the ministry that they are all safe.
The main airport in Nepal reopened on Sunday afternoon and flights are being gradually being resumed, Anna Kao said, adding that Taiwanese in Nepal should contact their travel agencies and airlines to arrange their return flights home.
Taiwanese in need of assistance can also call the ministry’s representative office in India on the emergency number +919810502610 or the foreign ministry in Taiwan on +886800085095, she said.
The government announced on Saturday that it would donate US$300,000 to Nepal.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs added yesterday that an account has been set up by the Ministry of Health and Welfare for members of the public to make donations to the relief effort.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
Temperatures in northern Taiwan are forecast to reach as high as 30°C today, as an ongoing northeasterly seasonal wind system weakens, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said yesterday that with the seasonal wind system weakening, warmer easterly winds would boost the temperature today. Daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan and Yilan County are expected to range from 28°C to 30°C today, up about 3°C from yesterday, Tseng said. According to the CWA, temperature highs in central and southern Taiwan could stay stable. However, the weather is expected to turn cooler starting tonight as the northeasterly wind system strengthens again
The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has been investigating nine shell companies working with Prince Holding Group, and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is seeking further prosecution of alleged criminals, a source said yesterday. The nine companies and three Taiwanese nationals were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Oct. 14 as Specially Designated Nationals as a result of a US federal court indictment. Prince Holding founder Chen Zhi (陳志) has been charged with fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding’s suspected forced-labor camps in Cambodia, the indictment says. Intelligence shared between Taiwan,
RSS