The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday awarded visiting Czech Senator Pavel Fischer a medal of friendship in recognition of his contributions to promoting closer relations between the countries.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) conferred the Friendship Medal of Diplomacy on Fischer during a ceremony at the ministry’s offices in Taipei.
Fischer, chair of the Czech Senate’s Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security Committee, is known for being friendly toward Taiwan, notably helping facilitate Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil’s historic trip to Taiwan in September 2020, the ministry said in a news release.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
During that visit, Vystrcil became the first incumbent speaker from a foreign parliament to address the Legislative Yuan in 45 years, the ministry said.
Fischer also helped Taiwan procure COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Czech Republic in 2020, and initiated several pro-Taiwan proposals in the Czech Senate, including one passed unanimously calling for Taiwan to participate in the annual World Health Assembly in 2021, it said.
The senator arrived early yesterday for a three-day visit.
In other developments, Taiwan on Monday officially opened a representative office in Montreal, its fourth office in Canada, in part to build closer ties with the technology hub and support overseas Taiwanese in French-speaking Quebec.
Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) and office chief Rita Chen (陳珮瑩), who most recently served as Taiwan’s deputy representative to New York, oversaw a ceremony opening the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Montreal, also known as Bureau Economique et Culturel de Taipei a Montreal.
In a prerecorded address aired at the ceremony, Wu said the latest office in Canada showed Taiwan’s determination to expand its relations with the North American country on all fronts.
Tseng said the opening of the Montreal office came in response to years of anticipation from overseas Taiwanese in Quebec and reflected the high priority Taiwan’s government puts on ties with Canada.
The ceremony was also attended by several Canadian lawmakers, including Judy Sgro, chair of the Taiwan-Canada Parliamentary Friendship Group; Pierre Paul-Hus; Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay; and Denis Trudel.
The ministry said it chose Montreal as the site for its newest office in Canada because it is the largest city in Quebec, and is known as a technology hub, notably in video game and artificial intelligence development.
The city is also home to the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
The Montreal office would be responsible for Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
Taiwan’s main representative office is in the capital, Ottawa, and it also has branch offices in Toronto and Vancouver.
The Montreal office’s address is 2310-1800 McGill College Ave, Montreal, QC H3A 3J6, Canada, and its telephone number is 1-514-282-8008. Its Web site is www.roc-taiwan.org/cayul.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
RSS