Minister of Foreign Affairs Jason Hu (
Hu previously said he was invited to visit the Dominican Republic by the country's president Leonel Fernandez, who came to Taiwan a week after the 921 earthquake.
"President Fernandez has expressed interest in constructing a high-tech park," said Hu, "but we did not have a chance to address these issues last time he was here. That is why I asked a group of high-tech businesses, who were going to Haiti anyway, to join me on this trip," he said.
As for the trip to Panama, Hu said it was an overdue visit which should have taken place in September -- for Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso's inauguration.
"I could not get away then because of the planning for the Central American Summit, but I did say I would visit later to meet the president and the foreign minister," Hu said.
Reports have questioned the stability of Taiwan-Panama relations in recent months, following a series of visit by Panamanian officials to Beijing, including the vice president-elect, an ex-vice president and a senior member of the country's Foreign Affairs Commission.
"Panama will not close its doors on the possibility of establishing ties with China as economic links between the two countries grow," Panama's representative in Hong Kong, Juan Pablo Pereira, told the Far Eastern Economic Review earlier this month.
Panama's foreign minister, Jose Miguel Aleman, was quick to dismiss such remarks, assuring Taiwan that the country plans to maintain diplomatic ties with the island while continuing commercial ones with China.
With the handover of the US-controlled Panama Canal at the end of this year, Taiwan is concerned that China may influence control of the waterway by the Hong Kong company Hutchinson Whampoa and persuade Pana-manian officials to switch diplomatic recognition.
The company is to pay Panama US$22.2 million per year in rent for the next 20 years for its operations in the Canal zone.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE TRAINING: The ministry said 87.5 percent of the apprehended Chinese agents were reported by service members they tried to lure into becoming spies Taiwanese organized crime, illegal money lenders, temples and civic groups are complicit in Beijing’s infiltration of the armed forces, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a report yesterday. Retired service members who had been turned to Beijing’s cause mainly relied on those channels to infiltrate the Taiwanese military, according to the report to be submitted to lawmakers ahead of tomorrow’s hearing on Chinese espionage in the military. Chinese intelligence typically used blackmail, Internet-based communications, bribery or debts to loan sharks to leverage active service personnel to do its bidding, it said. China’s main goals are to collect intelligence, and develop a
RSS