Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (
Mark Chen said the president had also wanted to visit Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands.
But to ensure the president will be back on Feb. 1 for when the new legislature convenes and the Cabinet is reshuffled, changes have been made to the itinerary. Chen Shui-bian will now visit the three South Pacific nations in the second half of this year.
The schedule at the end of the month had also been shortened for the same reasons, Presidential Office spokesman Chen Wen-tsung (陳文宗) said yesterday.
It was originally reported that the president would embark on a week-long visit to the South Pacific. But in view of the political situation at home, Chen Shui-bian had decided to shorten the trip, Chen Wen-tsung said.
While details of the trip are yet to be finalized, he said the Presidential Office would make the president's itinerary public once the preparations and details were complete.
The Marshall Islands had been penciled in for a Jan. 29 stopover, and Marshall Islands President Kessai Note wanted to be personally in charge of planning for the visit, said Taiwan's ambassador to the Marshall Islands, Chen Lien-gene (陳連軍).
Note leaves this week for a fortnight of meetings in Mauritius and Japan which would not allow him time to do this, the ambassador said.
Note and Chen earlier discussed the visit during a telephone conversation earlier this week, and alternative dates for a Marshall Islands visit were under consideration, he added.
Chen is still expected to attend the inauguration ceremony of the president of Palau.
The officials said that Chen would leave on Jan. 27 to attend the inauguration ceremony of Paluan President Tommy Rem-engesau, Jr. the next day.
They said a team was currently in the South Pacific arranging for the visit.
Most South Pacific airports cannot accommodate large aircraft, so China Airlines will use a 737 passenger plane for the trip.
Additional reporting by Huang Tai-lin
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS