The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday announced that it is to reopen a representative office in Guam, citing the growing strategic importance of the Pacific region and a strong Taiwan-US partnership.
Preparations for reopening the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Guam were already under way, the ministry said yesterday in a statement.
The de facto embassy in the US’ unincorporated, organized territory was closed in August 2017 during the tenure of former minister of foreign affairs David Lee (李大維), along with offices in Norway and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
Due to budget and personnel considerations, the government in 2017 deemed it necessary to temporarily halt operation of the office in Guam, the ministry said.
With the ministry’s budget rising steadily from 2018, Taiwan and the US have forged an increasingly strong global partnership and the strategic importance of the Pacific region has continued to grow, leading to the ministry’s decision to reinstate the office, it said.
The US has paid increased attention to the Pacific region, as it launched the US Indo-Pacific Strategy in 2018, and the Indo-Pacific Strategy Report and a report titled A Free and Open Indo-Pacific: Advancing a Shared Vision last year, the ministry said.
Re-establishing the representative office in Guam would facilitate economic and trade cooperation, and exchanges between Taiwan and the greater western Pacific region, deepen relations with its Pacific allies and increase multilateral exchanges, it said.
Taiwan in September last year lost two Pacific allies — the Solomon Islands and Kiribati — within a week amid Beijing’s pressure.
It now maintains formal relations with 15 nations, including four in the Pacific — Palau, Nauru, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands.
In 2017 and 2018, then-Guam governor Eddie Calvo led delegations to Taiwan and expressed his support for re-establishing the office when he met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), as well as boosting bilateral tourism and economic exchanges, the ministry said.
Taiwan maintains steady economic and trade relations with Guam, as Taiwanese enterprises — such as Lih Pao Construction (麗寶建設), Chung Kuo Insurance (兆豐保險), First Commercial Bank (第一商銀), Asia Cement Corp (亞泥) and China Airlines (華航) — have invested in the territory, it said.
Medical tourism from Guam to Taiwan has also gained momentum, it added.
After the reopening of the Guam office, the number of representative offices in the US would increase to 13: Washington, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Chicago, Honolulu, Denver, Miami and Guam, the ministry said.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
RSS