The Legislative Yuan’s parliamentary friendship association for the East Asian region yesterday announced that it is officially inviting former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe to visit Taiwan next year.
The group held a news conference and presented copies of a letter of invitation for Abe to give a speech at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Next year would be a momentous occasion for Japan, with the nation marking the 10th anniversary of the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster, as well as the proposed staging of the delayed Summer Olympic and Paralympic games, it said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The letter cited the strong friendship between Taiwan and Japan, and how the two countries have aided each other in times of need.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文), head of the association, said he believed that next year would be the best time to invite Abe, as he would have had time to recuperate after stepping down as prime minister due to health reasons.
Abe had made it possible for former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to visit and address the Japanese Diet on his views on democracy and other academic topics, DPP Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) said.
The Legislative Yuan, as a representative of Taiwan’s citizenry, is the best proxy in expressing its friendship to other countries, DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said.
Abe is seen as a political figure who has been most friendly toward Taiwan and the invitation could pave the way for even closer relations between the two nations, she said.
Taiwan and Japan enjoy very friendly non-government relations and a visit by Abe would boost bilateral relations, which is especially heartening as Taiwan is faced with an unfriendly neighbor, DPP Legislator Chang Hung-lu (張宏陸) said.
Chang said he hoped that in the future, high-level government officials from Taiwan and Japan would be able to visit each other.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said the ministry would like to thank the association for its contributions to furthering Taiwan-Japan relations.
Abe had on multiple occasions expressed that Taiwan and Japan have shared values, and that Taiwan is a “cherished friend and partner,” she said.
Under Abe, the Japanese government was amenable to Taiwan joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and other international bodies, such as the WHO, she added.
The ministry will continue to deepen relations with Japan, while stepping up efforts to enhance ties with Abe and other Japanese officials, Ou said.
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
J-6 REMODEL: The converted drones are part of Beijing’s expanding mix of airpower weapons, including bombers with stand-off missiles and UAV swarms, the report said China has stationed obsolete supersonic fighters converted to attack drones at six air bases close to the Taiwan Strait, a report published this month by the Arlington, Virginia-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said. Satellite imagery of the airfields from the institute’s “China Airpower Tracker” shows what appear to be lines of stubby, swept-winged aircraft matching the shape of J-6 fighters that first flew with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in the 1960s. Since their conversion to drones, the aircraft have been identified at five bases in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province, the report said. J.
RSS