Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide arrived in Taipei yesterday for his first visit to Taiwan since his re-election in 2000.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) and Haitian Ambassador to Taiwan Lafontaine Saint-Louis greeted Aristide at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, Taiwan's main gateway located some 40km south of Taipei.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will preside over a welcoming ceremony today at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall complex in downtown Taipei in honor of Aristide. During the ceremony the Haitian head of state will be accorded full military honors, complete with a 21-gun salute.
During his five-day state visit, Aristide will hold two rounds of talks with President Chen on matters of mutual concern and meet with Premier Yu Shyi-kun and other senior Taiwan officials to discuss ways to promote bilateral cooperation. He will also visit major industrial, agricultural and cultural institutions, including an experimental farm in Taoyuan and a vocational training center in Taichung.
This afternoon, Aristide and his 40-member entourage will visit the Jiji Junior High School and the Jiji Train Station in Nantou County which were both devastated by the Sept. 21 earthquake in 1999, in the company of President Chen and his wife. They will then visit the Lugang Folk Arts Museum in Changhwa County, Central Taiwan.
On the evening of that day, Chen will host a state banquet in honor of President Aristide and his entourage at the Li-de Cultural and Educational Recreational Center in Lugang.
Aristide will sign a joint communique with President Chen before ending his visit Saturday.
Premier Yu was to host a dinner in honor of President Aristide last night, during which the Haitian president was to confer a decoration upon Yu in recognition of his contributions to improving the friendship ties between the two countries.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
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