The friendship between Taiwan and Belize is not built on empty promises or the political whims of their leadership, but on shared values, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Belizean National Assembly on Monday.
Tsai was invited to deliver an address before the assembly by Belizean Prime Minister John Briceno, House of Representatives Speaker Valerie Woods and Senate President Carolyn Trench-Sandiford.
“What our two countries share is the strength and courage to rise from our challenging past and make our present and future free, bright and prosperous,” she said, adding that she was delighted to visit the country again after her trip five years ago.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Presidential Office
She singled out “expansionist threats from authoritarian regimes” as the greatest challenge faced by both sides in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, alongside climate change, a global economic slowdown and inflation.
While Taiwan’s relationships with democratic partners around the world have grown closer in recent years, the nation is facing constant threats from China and continues to be excluded from participation in international organizations, she said.
She thanked Belize for being “Taiwan’s strongest and most powerful advocate for our international participation” by voicing support for the nation at international forums and meetings held by global organizations, including the UN, the WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Members of the Belizean National Assembly unanimously passed a motion to support Taiwan’s participation in international organizations in May last year and the Resolution to Support Democratic Taiwan Motion last month, she said.
“Your unwavering friendship and support mean so much to us,” Tsai said.
Taiwan is honored to help Belize with development projects, such as road infrastructure, clean water supply for rural areas and providing nutritious food and Internet access to schools, she said.
The joint Women’s Empowerment Project has so far directly assisted more than 700 local women through vocational training and financial support, while scholarships from Taiwan have brought 500 Belizean students to study in Taiwan, she added.
Taiwan is Belize’s 10th-largest trading partner, with exports from the Central American nation to Taiwan last year skyrocketing 317 percent from 2021 after the Taiwan-Belize Economic Cooperation Agreement took effect in January last year, she said.
Companies from the two countries signed a letter of intent to import US$2 million of Belizean lobsters, and the government is working to facilitate and accelerate imports of other products from Belize, she said.
“Both our countries’ success is a testament to what courage, hard work, determination and diligence can achieve,” she said.
Despite some countries’ attempts to destroy their friendship, Taiwan and Belize remain close as they share common values and the vision for a more prosperous and peaceful future, she said.
The president said that the visit to Belize “solidified my confidence that our relationship will continue to stand strong for decades to come.”
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘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
HIGH-TECH DEAL: Chipmakers that expand in the US would be able to import up to 2.5 times their new capacity with no extra tariffs during an approved construction period Taiwan aims to build a “democratic” high-tech supply chain with the US and form a strategic artificial intelligence (AI) partnership under the new tariffs deal it sealed with Washington last week, Taipei’s top negotiator in the talks said yesterday. US President Donald Trump has pushed Taiwan, a major producer of semiconductors which runs a large trade surplus with the US, to invest more in the US, specifically in chips that power AI. Under the terms of the long-negotiated deal, chipmakers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) that expand US production would incur a lower tariff on semiconductors or related manufacturing
RSS