The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked Japan for allowing 94 Taiwanese on a chartered plane evacuating others stranded in Russia, where COVID-19 cases are rising and many international flights have been canceled.
Ninety-four Taiwanese exchange students and expats, as well as two Russian spouses, arrived at Narita International Airport in Japan yesterday morning on a charter flight operated by Japan Airlines, before taking a transfer flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport last night, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said.
As of press time last night, Russia had reported more than 362,000 cases of COVID-19, including more than 3,800 deaths.
Photo courtesy of the Representative Office in Moscow
The government had since earlier this month been seeking ways to evacuate the trapped Taiwanese before Japan agreed to arrange seats for them on a charter flight evacuating 47 Japanese nationals from Russia.
The high cost had kept Taiwan from sending its own charter flight, Ou said.
The ministry expressed its sincere appreciation to Japan, as well as Russia, for all of the arrangements they made for the evacuation, she added.
Photo: CNA
The 96 evacuees would be placed in centralized quarantine, in line with the Central Epidemic Command Center’s disease prevention regulations, Ou said.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan also extended special thanks to Japan Airlines and the Japanese All-Party Parliamentary Group for Taiwan for their efforts in coordinating the flight, Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said.
Speaking at a regular news conference in Japan, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the successful evacuation is a great example of collaboration between Japan, Taiwan and Russia during the disease prevention period.
Japanese authorities assisted the evacuees, ensuring that they had a smoother experience getting a connecting flight back to Taiwan, Suga said.
Japan Airlines had reportedly planned to land the flight at Tokyo Haneda Airport, but changed the destination to Narita International Airport, which has direct flights to Taiwan.
Suga expressed appreciation for the 1 million masks that KGI Charity Foundation (凱基慈善基金會) chairman Angelo Koo (辜仲瑩) donated to Japan, as well as thanking Taiwanese for their various forms of support.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS