The Swiss National Council on Wednesday passed a motion calling on the nation to sign an agreement with Taiwan to deepen collaboration in science, technology, innovation and culture.
The lower house of Switzerland’s parliament deliberated and adopted the bill submitted in 2022 by former Swiss national councilor Mustafa Atici in a vote of 96 in favor, 86 against and nine abstentions.
The bill aims to encourage and boost friendly relations between Taiwan and Switzerland, as well as deepen collaboration.
Photo: AP
It calls for a partnership agreement to be signed by the Trade Office of Swiss Industries in Taipei and the Cultural and Economic Delegation of Taipei in Switzerland.
In addition to collaboration between universities and research institutions in the two nations, a “solid institutional framework, in the form of an institutionalized partnership” is necessary to unlock the full potential that exists between the two sides in the interest of both parties, it says.
Deepening the relationship with Taiwan “can contribute to greater peace and stability in the world,” as “science diplomacy can help us meet the challenges of the 21st century,” the bill says.
It underlines the importance of developing the Swiss global network, in which “Taiwan has the potential to become one of the new major sites.”
Taiwan and Switzerland are “highly innovative, open economies that have a lot to offer,” especially in technology and research, said Swiss National Councilor Fabian Molina, who has taken over Atici’s motion after he lost his re-election bid in October last year.
The bill would help diversify Switzerland’s trade relations in Asia, improve the country’s economic and political relationship with Taiwan, and boost cooperation between democracies, Molina said.
However, Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin said that existing exchanges between Swiss and Taiwanese universities and institutions, as well as Swiss scholarship and subsidy programs, already “make it possible to achieve the objectives set” as he asked for the bill to be rejected.
The bill is to be sent to the Swiss Council of States, the upper house, for deliberation and voting.
Separately, the Wisconsin State Assembly passed a bill to reaffirm the US state’s commitment to ties with and support for Taiwan.
Taiwan shares the values of freedom, democracy, human rights, the rule of law, peace and prosperity with the US and Wisconsin, the bill says.
It urges Wisconsin to support the signing of a trade agreement between Taiwan and the US, as it is “an important step toward further strengthening bilateral trade” between the two sides by stimulating bilateral investment and collaboration through tariff reduction and other trade facilitation measures.
Wisconsin should also continue to back Taiwan’s participation in international organizations and “Taiwan’s aspiration to make more contributions in international societies,” it says.
Taiwan is capable of and willing to “collaborate with the world to face challenges such as humanitarian aid and disease control,” it says.
The bill was introduced in the State Assembly on Feb. 16, adopted on Thursday last week and sent to the Senate Organization Committee of the Wisconsin State Senate on Monday.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
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
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS