Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos Geyer, accompanied by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), received a military welcome yesterday morning, with both leaders expressing their confidence in bilateral ties between the two states.
Chen presided over a welcome salute for Bolanos, who led a 17-member delegation to Taipei on Monday for a four-day visit, the first official visit made by the 74-year-old Nicaraguan leader to Taiwan since his inauguration in January.
In his speech, Chen expressed his gratitude to Nicaragua for the country's longstanding support for Taiwan's bid to re-enter the UN.
Chen highlighted Nicaragua's firm support for Taipei's bid to gain observer status in the WHO at the annual meeting of the body's highest-level decision-making meeting, the World Health Assembly (WHA), which took place in Geneva from May 13 to last Saturday.
After the 21-gun salute at the CKS Memorial Park in the morning, the two heads of state held their first bilateral meeting at the Presidential Office, according to a Presidential Office press release.
During the talks, Chen said that the timing of Bolanos' arrival, Monday, was very "meaningful" as it was the second anniversary of Chen's inauguration.
That Bolanos is visiting Taipei less than four months after his inauguration in January is indicative of the firm ties between the two countries, the press release quoted Chen as saying. The two leaders have met three times before.
Bolanos expressed appreciation for Taiwan's longstanding aid to his country and assistance in the industrial, agricultural and educational development of Nicaragua, the statement said.
In the afternoon, Chen and Bolanos visited the Hwa Ya Technology Service Park near Taipei.
In the evening, Chen entertained his guests with a national banquet in Taoyuan Country, the hometown of Vice President Annette Lu (
During the Nicaraguan president's stay in Taiwan, the two heads of state are also scheduled to sign a joint communique to promote bilateral exchanges.
Bolanos will also meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新), Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and the well-known religious leader Shi Cheng-Yen (釋證嚴).
Members of the 17-strong Nicaraguan delegation include Foreign Minister Norman Caldera Cardenal, Deputy Agricultural Minister Sergio Marvaez Sampson and Commander of the Armed Forces Javier Carrion McDonough.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
RSS