Mongolia’s trade and economic office in Taipei is to have a new representative next month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, expressing the hope that bilateral relations between the two nations would improve further.
Ulaanbaatar Trade and Economic Representative Office Representative Khaliun Panidjunai would leave his post early next month after heading the office for more than two years, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Liu Bang-zyh (劉邦治) said.
The new representative, Zolzaya Lkhagvasuren, is scheduled to take office in the middle of next month, Liu told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
Relations between Taiwan and Mongolia have been growing steadily since 2002, when the two sides established mutual representative offices to boost ties, including in the areas of trade, tourism and education, Liu said.
“Bilateral trade between Taiwan and Mongolia grew by 258.72 percent in 2017, surging from US$12.5 million in 2016 to US$44.84 million,” Liu said, adding that sales of basic industrial products, clothes, foods and mechanical parts accounted for most of the growth.
The number of tourists to and from Mongolia has been rising, with some tourism agencies offering medical tours to Taiwan, Liu said.
Taiwan’s good education system and democratic way of life have made the nation one of the most popular destinations for study among young Mongolians, he said, adding that there are 1,400 Mongolian students in Taiwan and that the number has been growing.
In related news, Eswatini Minister of Economic Planning and Development Thambo Gina and her husband are to visit Taiwan from Feb. 17 to 21 to deepen bilateral ties, Liu said.
Swazi Minister of Foreign Affairs Thulisile Dladla, who is the African nation’s first female foreign minister, would follow them, visiting Taiwan from Feb. 24 to 28, he added.
Eswatini’s new Cabinet was sworn in in November last year. The nation is Taiwan’s sole African diplomatic ally after Burkina Faso severed ties with Taiwan in May last year.
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
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
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