President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to visit three of the nation’s diplomatic allies in the Pacific from Oct. 28 to Nov. 4, the Presidential Office said yesterday.
The president is to visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Wu Chih-chung (吳志中) said at a Presidential Office news conference.
Tsai is to meet with senior officials of the three countries during her eight-day trip to promote bilateral ties, Wu said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Six of Taiwan’s 20 formal diplomatic allies are in the Pacific, the other three being Nauru, Kiribati and Palau.
In other news, Tsai yesterday said that the government would like the US and Japan to support its New Southbound Policy, which promotes cooperation in trade, infrastructure, investment and education between Taiwan and the policy’s target countries.
Tsai made the remark at the Presidential Office Building while receiving a group of foreign academics, who had attended the Yushan Forum on Wednesday and Thursday.
“The key for Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy to succeed is positive responses from our neighboring countries and the international community,” she said.
As the New Southbound Policy is aimed at “redefining Taiwan’s role in Southeast Asia and South Asia, our nation is committed to expanding opportunities with other like-minded nations in the New Southbound Policy target countries,” Tsai said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
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