US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday last week encouraged Tuvalu to work with Taiwan in pushing for democracy in the Pacific region, amid media reports that the selection of a new prime minister in the South Pacific nation could complicate its diplomatic relationship with Taiwan.
Pompeo mentioned the cooperation between Tuvalu and Taiwan in a statement released before a scheduled appearance at next month’s ceremony to mark the 41st anniversary of Tuvalu’s independence.
The US has been a friend of Tuvalu since it gained independence in 1978, Pompeo said, adding that the close ties extended back to earlier generations.
“We welcome your commitment to advancing our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region with other democracies in the Pacific region, including Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Japan,” Pompeo said.
Earlier this month, newly installed Tuvaluan lawmakers elected Kausea Natano as the new prime minister, replacing former Tuvaluan prime minister Enele Sopoaga, who was pro-Taiwan.
That has raised concerns over the state of its ties with Taiwan.
International media have reported that the new political situation in Tuvalu could provide an opportunity for Beijing to convince it to switch diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China.
Tuvalu is one of four diplomatic allies that Taiwan has in the South Pacific, along with Palau, Nauru and the Marshall Islands.
Last week, Taiwan lost two diplomatic allies. On Monday, the Solomon Islands decided to switch allegiance from Taipei to Beijing and four days later, Kiribati did the same, leaving Taiwan with only 15 diplomatic allies.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS