Most member countries participating in this year’s Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians’ Union (APPU) general assembly signed a joint communique at the closing ceremony in Taipei yesterday, with the members that did not endorse the deal possibly scared off by China.
Of the 12 APPU members attending the annual event, only Malaysia and Mongolia did not sign the communique, which focused on regional cooperation for disaster prevention and mitigation, the organizers said.
Political factors, such as pressure from China, were believed to be the main reason the two countries’ delegations did not endorse the document.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), chairman of the 44th APPU General Assembly, said that because of the growing threat of climate change to the Asia-Pacific region, the participants agreed during the assembly to adopt nine resolutions on national disaster prevention and economic regional integration.
“I sincerely hope that lawmakers from APPU members will continue to promote legislation on natural disaster prevention and monitor executive branches in this area,” Wang said.
Participating APPU members that signed the communique were Taiwan, Japan, Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and the Solomon Islands.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), who chaired the organization’s 78th Council Meeting on Monday, described the APPU events as great occasions for the nation to increase exchanges with its diplomatic allies and countries that do not have official ties with Taipei, such as Japan.
At the closing ceremony, a representative from the Marshall Islands offered condolences to the families of the people killed in gas pipeline explosions in Greater Kaohsiung and a passenger plane crash in Penghu County in recent weeks.
He also invited lawmakers from APPU members to his country next year, as the organization’s General Assembly is scheduled to take place there.
Established in Tokyo in 1965, the APPU aims to achieve and preserve freedom and democracy, with Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Philippines and Thailand as founding members.
The APPU has 21 member nations, and Vietnam and Fiji participated this year as observers.
Thailand did not participate in this year’s events because it is still waiting to elect a new parliament, organizers said.
South Korea has been absent from APPU general assembly and council meetings in recent years because of the China factor, Lin said.
The relatively low turnout of members was not unusual.
Only seven APPU members attended the 42nd General Assembly and 76th Council Meeting held in Micronesia in 2011, and 11 members participated in last year’s general assembly and council meeting in Japan.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS