Lawmakers from across party lines yesterday established two parliamentary friendship groups aimed at improving relations with the Czech Republic and Spain at an inauguration ceremony at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wan Mei-ling (萬美玲) presided over the ceremony launching the Republic of China (ROC)-Czech Parliamentary Amity Association, while KMT Legislator Wu I-ding (吳怡玎) established the ROC-Spain Parliamentary Amity Association.
Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Tseng (曾厚仁), Department of European Affairs Director-General Johnson Chiang (姜森) and Czech Representative to Taiwan Patrick Rumlar attended the ceremony, along with KMT legislators Yeh Yu-lan (葉毓蘭), Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞), Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍), Hung Mong-kai (洪孟楷), William Tseng (曾銘宗), Lee Guei-min (李貴敏) and Lee Te-wei (李德維), and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應).
Photo: CNA
“The Taiwan-Czech relationship has been steadily improving since trade talks were held between our deputy finance ministers in 2016, followed by the signing of a mutual tax treaty in 2017, which will take effect next year,” Wan said.
The Czech Republic was also the first European country to cooperate with Taiwan on disease prevention, she said.
A delegation from the Czech Republic — which is to include Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil — is scheduled to visit Taiwan from Aug. 30 to Sept. 5, and visit the legislature on Sept. 1.
Members of the ROC-Czech Parliamentary Amity Association are to meet with the delegation.
Wu I-ding said the ROC-Spain Parliamentary Amity Association could create opportunities for the two nations to cooperate on developing platforms for trade and interpersonal exchanges.
It could also help Taiwan learn from the open environment in Barcelona, which encourages start-ups, she said.
Harry Tseng said the new associations were in the spirit of the exchange groups that Taiwanese representatives abroad have been establishing over the years in allied nations and those of non-diplomatic allies, such as the Formosa Club offices in European and Latin American countries.
This was a very welcome trend in the nation’s diplomacy, he said, adding that he would support the legislature in developing new avenues for diplomatic exchanges.
In related news, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that disease prevention procedures for the Czech delegation’s visit would follow the measures taken during the visits by US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and his delegation and that of former Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori and his group this month.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still negotiating the details of the delegations’ visit, but plans include requiring the members to test negative for COVID-19 before boarding their flight to Taiwan, receive another test upon arrival and be taken to a designated hotel with designated vehicles, he said.
They would also be required to enter and leave the nation as a group, and the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) might ask the facilities that the delegation plans to visit to prepare specific disease prevention procedures, said Chuang, who is also the CECC spokesman.
In other diplomatic news, Taiwan’s representative office in Somaliland opened yesterday, with several Somaliland Internet users posting welcome messages online.
Following an agreement in February to open representative offices in each other’s capitals, Somaliland Representative to Taiwan Mohamed Omar Hagi Mohamoud arrived in Taipei on Aug. 7.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
RSS