The messages brought back by the country’s last ambassador to the Gambia Samuel Chen (陳士良) yesterday was that Gambian President Yahya Jammeh considered the limit of Taiwan’s financial assistance for Gambia to not be in the “strategic national interests” of his country, diplomatic sources said.
In response to Jammeh’s decision to break off relations with Taiwan on Nov. 14 for reasons of “strategic national interests,” the Taiwan government on Monday announced the termination of bilateral ties to safeguard the nation’s dignity and the principles of its foreign aid policy aimed to stop “checkbook diplomacy.”
At a legislative meeting on Monday, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said Jammeh had made “exorbitant demands” for aid from Taiwan, in an apparent move to confirm the assertion made by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) that Jammeh in January had requested more than US$10 million in cash without specified purposes.
David Lin told lawmakers at that time that the request by Jammeh was “unacceptable” and that “we were unable to satisfy his request.”
Diplomatic sources said the ministry yesterday reaffirmed that at the center of Jammeh’s strategic thoughts on national interests was the scale of foreign aid his country can receive from Taiwan and other donor nations.
Chen went to the ministry to report to Lin about the case straight from the airport. The meeting lasted five hours.
The stated purpose of Jammeh’s request of US$10 million was “national security,” which was more like a blank check than a project-orientated request that has to be implemented in line with the three principles — justifiable purposes, legal procedures and effective implementation — under the ministry’s foreign aid policy, sources said.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
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