Taiwan has decided to cut diplomatic ties with Chad after the African nation recognized China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at an emergency press conference last night.
The ministry's announcement came after Chad informed the government of the change at 10pm last night, it said.
Chad's recognizing China will cut the number of Taiwan's diplomatic allies to only 24.
The news comes as Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) was to depart for Chad today to attend Chadian President Idriss Deby's second inauguration on Tuesday as President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) special envoy.
The ministry said that he has canceled the trip.
With the loss of Chad, the nation now has six diplomatic allies in Africa, according to the ministry.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
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