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.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS