Vice President William Lai (賴清德) on Thursday spoke briefly with US Vice President Kamala Harris in their first public meeting, at the inauguration of Honduran President Xiomara Castro.
As the last government envoy introduced at the packed sports stadium where the ceremony was held, Harris greeted the international leaders present, including Lai, who was sitting in the front row near Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada and King Felipe VI of Spain.
Lai and Harris spoke briefly, the first time the vice presidents have interacted at a public event since taking office in 2020 and last year respectively.
Photo: CNA
Commenting on their impromptu conversation, which the international media characterized as “highly symbolic,” Harris told reporters after the inauguration that she and Lai talked about “a common interest in this part of the region.”
Their conversation also touched on “Taiwan’s interest in our root causes strategy,” Harris said, referring to the US’ efforts to curb migration.
Reuters described the encounter as “likely to add to Beijing’s tensions with Washington.”
Photo: AFP / Honduran presidency
Speaking at a news conference with Taiwanese reporters, Lai declined to reveal what he and Harris discussed, saying only that he thanked the US vice president for her country’s support of Taiwan.
Lai also posted a photograph on Facebook of him among a group of people including King Felipe.
Lai is leading a delegation to Honduras to attend Castro’s inauguration and meet with officials from its new government.
He was yesterday to return home via San Francisco.
The Presidential Office said that Lai invited Castro to visit Taiwan during a bilateral meeting held after she was sworn in.
During the meeting, Lai extended the invitation to Castro on behalf of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and expressed Taiwan’s continued support for the Honduran government as it pushes for economic reform and fights against corruption, the office said.
As Tsai and Castro are the first female presidents of their respective countries, their meeting would be a testament to global efforts to promote women’s empowerment, the office quoted Lai as saying.
Lai also proposed that Taiwan, Honduras and the US collaborate on “helping Honduras solve various problems,” the office said, without providing specifics.
Additional reporting by Reuters
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
A former television news host and six military personnel — active and retired — have been indicted on espionage charges, Kaohsiung prosecutors said yesterday. Lin Chen-you (林宸佑), a former CTi News host and YouTuber, last year allegedly made videos at the direction of a Chinese agent criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party’s recall campaign, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office told a news conference in Kaohsiung. He allegedly received 4,325 tether coins for the videos from an unidentified person surnamed Huang (黃), believed to be an agent of a hostile foreign power, they said. Lin, also known as Ma Te (馬德), has a show named
‘CRITICAL MOMENT’: Any delay in the passage of the remaining funds would weaken Taiwan’s security and play into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, the AIT said While welcoming the Legislative Yuan’s approval of a supplementary defense budget, the US Department of State said that further delays to Taiwan military spending are a “concession” to China. The remarks came after the legislature on Friday passed the budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of military equipment from the US, with total spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.82 billion). One package allocates NT$300 billion for arms sales approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, while the other sets aside NT$480 billion for an arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The
RSS