Paraguayan president-elect Santiago Pena is to visit Taiwan from tomorrow until Saturday, during which time the two allies are to celebrate the 66th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced yesterday.
The Paraguayan delegation would also include a number of the incoming government’s senior officials, including foreign minister-designate Ruben Ramirez Lezcano, incoming presidential chief secretary Lea Gimenez Duarte, finance minister-designate Carlos Fernandez Valdovinos and incoming industry and commerce minister Francisco Javier Gimenez Garcia de Zuniga, MOFA said in a news release.
During his five-day visit, Pena is to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Vice President William Lai (賴清德), Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) and Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元), MOFA said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The delegates would visit National Taiwan University of Science and Technology and Taipei-based non-governmental organization World Vision Taiwan, as well as attend forums with local business representatives, it said.
Pena wrote on Twitter that he would visit Abu Dhabi, then travel to Taiwan to meet Tsai, who he described as a “great friend.”
“We are going to develop an intense international agenda in the coming days carrying the message that Paraguay and its people are up for great things,” he wrote.
Pena pledged during his election campaign to maintain Paraguay’s six decades of diplomatic relations with Taiwan, despite pressure from the local agricultural sector, which wants access to China’s soybean and beef markets.
Pena’s trip, ahead of his inauguration on Aug. 15, coincides with the 66th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations on July 12, 1957, making the visit even more meaningful, MOFA said.
Pena, a 44-year-old economist and former finance minister, won 43 percent of the votes in Paraguay’s April 30 presidential race, defeating center-left rival Efrain Alegre, who had campaigned on a pledge to cut diplomatic relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing.
Pena’s victory eased fears that Taiwan would lose another ally.
The number of allies that maintain formal relations with Taiwan has dwindled to 13 in recent years, and Paraguay is the only country in South America to maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
MOFA said that it plans to send representatives to attend Pena’s inauguration.
Diplomatic sources have told Reuters that Lai might attend as Taiwan’s representative, likely transiting through the US to meet US officials.
Additional reporting by Reuters
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
LETTER, FLAG FLAP: A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a letter meant for Taiwanese winners, while China’s team took offense at a Taiwanese flag President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday condemned an alleged attempt by two Chinese to snatch a letter of congratulations handed to Taiwan’s taekwondo team after they won silver at the Summer World University Games in Germany on Wednesday. A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a congratulatory letter to athletes Hung Jiun-yi (洪俊義), Jung Jiun-jie (鍾俊傑) and Huang Cho-cheng (黃卓乘) from the Ministry of Education, and then argued with reporters. “Why are you taking our things?” reporters asked the pair. “Does that say ‘Chinese Taipei’?” the two Chinese reportedly asked. Following the incident, Sports Administration Director-General Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) wrote on Threads about
RSS