Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes has reassured Taiwan that his country will continue to maintain cordial and stable diplomatic relations with Taiwan after he shared a stage with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at an international event, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Cartes attended an event organized by the embassy of the Republic of China to Paraguay in Asuncion on Friday and told Ambassador Jose Maria Liu (劉德立) that the diplomatic relationship between the two countries would remain the same, said an official at the ministry, who wished to remain anonymous.
In response to media inquiries, the ministry yesterday confirmed that Cartes had attended the summit between China and presidents of 11 countries belonging to the Union of South American Nations, known as UNASUR, on Wednesday last week in Brasilia, Brazil, where he met with Xi.
The ministry’s understanding was that Cartes was at the summit because Paraguay is a member of UNASUR and that he left early because he had other engagements back in Paraguay, ministry spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) said.
Kao said that the ministry was assured that there was no bilateral meeting between Cartes and Xi when they were both at the summit.
The anonymous official said that Cartes was present at the opening reception of the event in Asuncion held to showcase achievements of bilateral cooperative projects and he told Liu that his conversation with Xi did not go beyond ordinary greetings.
After attending the sixth summit of BRICs on July 15 in Fortaleza, Brazil, and the meeting with UNASUR on Wednesday, Xi had a meeting with leaders of the “Quartet” members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States — Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador and Antigua and Barbuda — on Thursday last week.
Xi concluded his week-long trip to Latin America yesterday after visiting Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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