President William Lai (賴清德) is to make stopovers in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam during his seven-day trip to the South Pacific, his first official visit since taking office in May, the Presidential Office said yesterday.
Lai, accompanied by a delegation, is scheduled to depart for the South Pacific on a chartered flight at 4:30pm tomorrow, stopping first in Hawaii for a two-night layover before traveling to the Marshall Islands, an office official said.
After wrapping up his visits to the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu, the president is to transit through Guam, spending a night there before flying to Palau, said the official, who declined to be named.
Photo: Taipei Times
The president was scheduled to “make some visits” and “meet with old friends” while in Hawaii and Guam, in addition to attending closed-door think tank events and dinners with Taiwanese expatriates, the official said, without elaborating.
Arrangements for Lai’s layovers would follow past practices and adhere to protocols to ensure the president’s safety, dignity and comfort, the official added.
The South Pacific tour, which is to conclude on Friday next week, aims to bolster Taiwan’s partnerships with its diplomatic allies, and foster bilateral cooperation in areas that benefit the nations and their people, the official said.
Information provided by the office showed that Lai is to meet separately with the heads of government of the three allies: Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine, Tuvaluan Prime Minister Feleti Teo and Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr.
Lai would also address the legislature of the Marshall Islands and meet with its speaker, Brenson Wase, the information showed.
He would also visit several facilities built with Taiwanese funding in the Pacific island states, and inspect medical and technical missions there.
Taipei has been put on high alert for a potential military drill by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in response to Lai’s overseas visit.
Speaking at the legislature in Taipei yesterday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that the government “does not rule out the possibility,” given that Beijing has usually had some response when Taiwanese presidents traveled overseas.
Lin called on Beijing to refrain from excessive acts that could undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
The National Security Council has prepared contingencies in the event of potential Chinese aggression, and the government is in close contact with allies and like-minded countries, he added.
Lai is visiting Taiwan’s South Pacific allies as his first overseas trip as president, as all three countries elected new leaders in the past year and the last presidential trip there was in 2019, Lin said.
Meanwhile, the air force early yesterday conducted its quarterly defense drill involving its main fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles, the military branch said in a statement.
The exercise was conducted from 5am to 7am to bolster the nation’s defense capabilities, and test the response and engagement procedures of air defense units, the air force said.
It was intended to evaluate the readiness and engagement procedures of all military branches, enhance overall operational effectiveness and ensure the security of Taiwan’s airspace, the Ministry of National Defense wrote on X.
Additional reporting by Yu Tai-lang and Lery Hiciano
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS