St Vincent and the Grenadines will have the ability to advocate more strongly for Taiwan to be recognized when it takes its seat on the UN Security Council early next year, St Vincent and the Grenadines Ambassador to Taiwan Andrea Bowman said last week in an interview with the Central News Agency.
The Caribbean nation was elected in June to be a seat on the 15-member council for a two-year term and is to take its seat in January.
The council seat will put St Vincent and the Grenadines “in a position where our voice will be better heard,” and allow the country to advocate for “Taiwan’s right to be legitimately recognized,” she said.
Photo: CNA
“The voice of this little country in such a big seat … would be heard and would count for something,” Bowman said.
Her nation has been using its voice to speak up internationally for Taiwan and will continue to do so, she said.
“Only now it’s going to be a louder voice, a voice that carries even more weight,” said Bowman, who became St Vincent and the Grenadines’ first ambassador to Taipei in August.
On the issue of China’s efforts to take Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, Bowman said she recognized that “all allies of Taiwan would be targeted by China.”
However, her nation’s 38-year relationship with Taiwan was built on “trust and friendship,” she said.
Diplomatic ties with Taiwan are strongly supported by the public and by Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and his Unity Labour Party, now in their fourth consecutive term, she said.
The decision to open an embassy was a strong indication of its commitment to bilateral diplomatic ties, Bowman said.
The embassy was formally opened in an Aug. 8 ceremony, but did not began service until Monday last week.
Bowman, a former high school principal, said her first priority as ambassador is to take care of Vincentian students in Taiwan and to decide how best the embassy can serve them.
“I want them to regard the St Vincent embassy as a home away from home,” Bowman said.
Her second priority is to establish a viable presence in Taiwan, promoting her nation through the media, exhibitions and cultural events, she said.
The embassy’s first major undertaking will be a series of activities in the week leading up to Oct. 27, the 40th anniversary of St Vincent and Grenadines independence, Bowman said.
The celebrations will include a reception at the embassy and public events in Taipei, all of which will help establish the nation’s presence in Taiwan, she said.
“We are in our early days, but bit by bit we will do more and more,” she said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS