President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday met Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in Managua, with the Central American leader reaffirming his nation’s support for Taiwan’s participation in UN-affiliated and other global organizations.
Ortega expressed his gratitude to Tsai and Taiwanese, saying Nicaragua has long benefited from mutual assistance, bilateral cooperation and growing trade between the two nations.
He said that at a recent summit in Nicaragua of Central American Integration System (SICA) leaders, he talked of his nation’s commitment to strengthening ties with Taiwan.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of the Presidential Office
He told Tsai that Managua would continue to support Taiwan’s participation in UN-affiliated and other global organizations related to humanitarian assistance, public health, education, culture, civil aviation safety, environmental protection and climate change.
“We will continue to fight for greater rights for Taiwan,” he said.
Tsai replied that the support of the international community has helped Taiwan in its economic development and that Taiwan is willing to give back by helping other nations develop and improve the lives of their people.
She said the four Central American states that she is visiting are all long-time allies and Taiwan would do its best to help bring about rapid economic development in the region.
Tsai said she was pleased to be invited to Ortega’s inauguration, so she could congratulate the Nicaraguan president on behalf of Taiwanese.
She also expressed the hope that her visit would help deepen the friendship between the two countries.
During the meeting, which was also attended by Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo, Tsai thanked Nicaragua and other Central American allies for their support of Taiwan’s efforts to participate in the international community.
In a Facebook post after the meeting, Tsai wrote that she had invited Ortega to visit Taiwan and he had promised to consider it.
In response to Ortega’s proposal to increase exchanges under a free-trade agreement, Tsai said Taiwan is transforming its economic structure and would welcome more bilateral exchanges and greater cooperation.
Tsai was yesterday scheduled to attend the inauguration of Ortega, who was re-elected in November to a third consecutive term.
Nicaragua is the second leg of Tsai’s Central American tour, which also includes Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Tsai’s meeting with Ortega shortly after her arrival in Managua was broadcast live on Nicaraguan television. The delegation of 35 Taiwanese reporters traveling with her were not invited to cover the meeting. The group only learned about the meeting when they saw the television broadcast at a local state-run channel.
Tsai’s official itinerary, which was released to the Taiwanese media before she left Taiwan on Saturday, showed meetings with her counterparts in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, but not Nicaragua, an omission that Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said was deliberate to allow flexibility in terms of time.
Tsai’s visit to Nicaragua is to end today, after which she is to fly to Guatemala and El Salvador before returning to Taiwan on Sunday, with a stopover in San Francisco.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
RSS