The first international search-and-rescue team from Japan has arrived to help with efforts in Hualien after a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck on Tuesday night, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Andrew Lee (李憲章) said yesterday.
“The government of Japan has answered our requests for aid and has sent a team of seven experts and two advanced scanners,” Lee said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wrote a personal letter to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) expressing the nation’s condolences over the earthquake and said that the Japanese team has been dispatched to help in the continuing search-and-rescue operation.
Screen grab from the Prime Minister of Japan ’s Facebook account
Officials from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Tokyo Fire Department, the Tokyo Police Department and the Japan Coast Guard’s Tokyo branch are also coming to Taiwan, Lee said, adding that two officials from the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association and the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association would accompany the group to facilitate communications.
The search-and-rescue team arrived at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) at 12:30pm and was flown directly to Hualien.
Lee thanked to the Japanese government on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for dispatching a professional team and its high-tech equipment in such a short time.
Screen grab from the Prime Minister of Japan ’s Facebook account
Japanese Minster of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono also telephoned Minster of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) to express his concern and condolences.
As of 10am yesterday, representatives from 25 countries, including diplomatic allies the Holy See, Belize, Haiti, Nicaragua, Saint Lucia, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala, arrived in Taiwan to express their support and condolences.
Tsai thanked world leaders for their concern and condolences on her official social media sites.
Photo: AP
“Taiwan is grateful to the many offers of assistance & support coming from around the world. Although relief efforts in Hualien are sufficient, your warmth & kindness have been felt by people of Taiwan,” she wrote on Twitter.
Tsai also responded to Abe’s Facebook account, which offered condolences and showed a picture of his calligraphy.
“A true friend during such difficult times... Our friendship and values will be manifested with humanitarian aid,” Tsai tweeted in Japanese.
Netizens alleged that the original phrasing of Abe’s letter had been changed due to Chinese pressure.
The letter, posted on the Japanese Prime Minister Residence’s account, initially addressed Tsai as, “President,” but the title was dropped less than two hours later.
Content on site are considered official governmental documents.
Netizens praised Japan for “having the guts” to address Tsai by her official title, a source said.
Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Department of General Affairs Director Michi Kakizawa said he was not sure why the letter was changed, adding that the association delivered the letter from “Prime Minister Abe to President Tsai.”
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS