The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines remain strong and stable, shrugging off plans by the Caribbean nation’s major opposition party to establish ties with China if it gains power.
At a routine news conference in Taipei yesterday, Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Director-General Miguel Tsao (曹立傑) said relations between the two nations have been solid and steady, as evidenced by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves’ attendance at the government’s Double Ten National Day ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building on Monday.
“During his visit to Taiwan this time, Gonsalves said that in an effort to demonstrate our friendship, he published a 40,000-word article in a local newspaper detailing the two nations’ close ties,” Tsao said.
In the article, Gonsalves told Arnhim Eustace, leader of Saint Vincent’s main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), that the idea of establishing diplomatic ties with Beijing is “naive” Tsao said.
Gonsalves also reiterated confidence in the two nations’ strong relations during his meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the Presidential Office on Tuesday and pledged to prove his words through actions, Tsao said.
Tsao made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions regarding Eustace’s announcement in August that in light of Saint Vincent’s need to promote trade and investment, his party would switch the nation’s diplomatic recognition to Beijing if elected to office.
Saint Vincent is among Taiwan’s 22 diplomatic allies, some of which have allegedly been interested in switching sides to Beijing, including the Vatican and Sao Tome and Principe.
In March, Taipei’s former diplomatic ally Gambia established ties with China after severing the two nations’ 18-year relationship in November 2013.
Tsao said it was the 10th visit to Taiwan by Gonsalves, who was re-elected for a fourth term in December last year and is set to become the longest-ruling national leader in Latin America and the Caribbean after his current term expires in 2020.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS