The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked Japan for considering sending additional vaccines to Taiwan.
Japan on June 4 donated 1.24 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan as the nation is grappling with a shortage of jabs.
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi yesterday announced that Tokyo is sending 1 million doses to Vietnam today, and is considering sending another batch to Taiwan through the COVAX vaccine sharing initiative, as well as shipping vaccines to other Southeast Asian nations.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The government would maintain close communications with Tokyo and hopes that the vaccines would arrive soon, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, also thanked Tokyo for its goodwill.
In other developments, the ministry reiterated its support for Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) to conduct phase 3 clinical trials for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in Paraguay, after the developer announced its phase 2 trial results in Taiwan last week.
The company and the National University of Asuncion Faculty of Medical Sciences on April 22 met virtually to discuss clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccine development.
The ministry at the time said it welcomed the cooperation.
The two parties on May 12 signed a memorandum of understanding, with the faculty saying it “is interested in organizing and executing MVC’s [Medigen] COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials in Paraguay,” Chinese-language Mirror Media reported yesterday, publishing part of the document.
The ministry is glad to see medical cooperation between Medigen and the university, Ou said in a statement, adding that the ministry would continue to offer assistance.
Once the nation’s locally developed vaccines obtain emergency use authorization and after meeting the domestic demand for jabs, the government would be happy to share them with diplomatic allies to help them combat the pandemic, she added.
Paraguay is one of the nation’s 15 diplomatic allies and the only one in South America.
Following speculation that it might switch recognition to Beijing in exchange for COVID-19 vaccines, Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez on April 20 said the country would not accept any kind of blackmail or diplomatic conditions in exchange for vaccines from Chinese suppliers, after the country procured vaccines from India.
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
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
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
RSS