Outgoing Taiwan Representative to Britain Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂) departed London with his wife on Sunday for home, concluding an almost three-year stint as the nation's top envoy in the UK.
Tien departed with praise from Taiwanese expatriate community members in Britain and with a high degree of recognition from political and diplomatic circles in both the UK and Europe.
Over 50 Taiwanese and British friends saw the Tiens off at the airport.
During his time in office, Tien scored several "record" achievements in his efforts at strengthening Taiwan's friendship with the UK and Europe and at broadening Taiwan's diplomatic horizons.
Tien's most recent achievement was inviting 26 parliamentarians from 20 European countries who have been friendly toward Taiwan to establish the "Marco Polo Club," and convening the club's first general meeting on Taiwan-related issues. These included how to facilitate Taiwan's participation in important international organizations.
Last week, members of the British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group bid farewell to Tien and his wife at a reception held at the House of Commons. It marked the first time that members of the British parliament had held a farewell reception at Westminster for an envoy from Taipei.
Thomas Cox, one of the co-chairmen of the parliamentary group, raised a motion in the House of Commons to request that it cite Tien's outstanding performance in enhancing relations between the two countries. The motion was signed by over 60 members of parliament.
Altogether, the House of Commons raised eight motions during Tien's tenure in London to show support for Taiwan. The motions featured efforts ranging from supporting Taiwan's accession to the WHO and recognizing Taiwan's democratization, to raising concerns about China's military intimidation of Taiwan and calling for the EU not to lift its arms embargo against China. During his stint, Tien also signed an agreement with Jean Lemierre, president of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), to jointly initiate two programs to help 28 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia in their transition to free-market economies.
Under the Replenishment Agreement, Taiwan pledges to donate an extra US$1 million to the EBRD's technical cooperation programs. Taiwan is the largest non-member donor to the EBRD's technical cooperation funds.
The second agreement commits Taiwan to contribute US$1.29 million to a Mongolia Cooperation Fund that will be used solely to help Mongolia develop private enterprises.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
Taiwan’s Li Yu-hsiang performs in the men’s singles figure skating short program at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday. Li finished 24th with a score of 72.41 to advance to Saturday’s free skate portion of the event. He is the first Taiwanese to qualify for the free skate of men’s singles figure skating at the Olympics since David Liu in 1992.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday held a ceremony marking the delivery of its 11th Anping-class offshore patrol vessel Lanyu (蘭嶼艦), saying it would boost Taiwan’s ability to respond to Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Chung-Lung (張忠龍) presided over the CGA event in the Port of Kaoshiung. Representatives of the National Security Council also attended the event. Designed for long-range and protracted patrol operations at sea, the Lanyu is a 65.4m-long and 14.8m-wide ship with a top speed of 44 knots (81.5kph) and a cruising range of 2,000 nautical miles (3704km). The vessel is equipped with a
Two siblings in their 70s were injured yesterday when they opened a parcel and it exploded, police in Yilan said, adding the brother and sister were both in stable condition. The two siblings, surnamed Hung (洪), had received the parcel two days earlier but did not open it until yesterday, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday in Taiwan, police said. Chen Chin-cheng (陳金城), head of the Yilan County Government Police Bureau, said the package bore no postmark or names and was labeled only with the siblings’ address. Citing the findings of a
RSS