Congratulations from foreign governments poured in after Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party won Saturday’s presidential election by a landslide.
The White House offered its congratulations to the president-elect and said the US “maintain[s] a profound interest in the continuation of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
“The United States congratulates Dr. Tsai Ing-wen on her victory in Taiwan’s presidential election. We also congratulate the people of Taiwan for once again demonstrating the strength of their robust democratic system,” White House National Security Council spokesman Myles Caggins said.
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida on Saturday wrote on the ministry Web site that Taiwan is an important partner and friend to Japan and they share fundamental values, have close economic relations and engage in personnel exchanges.
“Based on maintaining non-official and pragmatic relations with Taiwan, the Japanese government hopes the bilateral cooperation and exchanges can be deepened,” Kishida wrote.
The European Parliament Taiwan Friendship Group also issued a statement to congratulate Tsai on her election.
“The outcome of the election shows that Taiwan has become a mature and stable democracy which respects multiparty pluralist democracy,” it said.
Philippine representative in Taiwan Antonio Basilio congratulated Tsai in a statement yesterday and expressed hope that bilateral ties will advance to boost peace and stability in the region.
Nauruan President Baron Waqa also sent a congratulatory message to Tsai yesterday, saying Nauru looks forward to further improving bilateral ties and expressed gratitude for the assistance that Taiwan has provided to his nation.
A Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman congratulated Tsai, saying, “as a longstanding friend, Singapore looks forward to maintaining our close relations and cooperation with Taiwan based on our consistent ‘one China’ policy.”
“Singapore supports the peaceful development of cross-strait relations. We hope that both sides will build on the hard-earned achievements over the last few years and continue to engage in dialogue and mutually-beneficial cooperation for the benefit of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait,” the spokesman said.
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Vice President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that Beijing was trying to “annex” Taiwan, while China said its recent series of drills near Taiwan are aimed at combating the “arrogance” of separatist forces. The Ministry of National Defense earlier this month said that it had observed dozens of Chinese fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships and the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, operating nearby. The increased frequency of China’s military activities has raised the risk of events “getting out of hand” and sparking an accidental clash, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said last week. Asked about the spurt
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
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