American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman James Moriarty is in Taipei leading a delegation that is to engage in discussions with top officials on bilateral relations, security and the economy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Moriarty and AIT Political-Military Affairs Director Matthew Tritle arrived on Monday and are to stay until Saturday, a ministry news release said.
This is Moriarty’s seventh trip to Taiwan since becoming AIT chairman in October 2016, it added.
Photo: CNA
Asked if a Taiwan-US free-trade agreement was on the agenda for Moriarty’s talks, Department of North American Affairs Director-General Vincent Yao (姚金祥) told a regular news conference at the ministry in Taipei that economy and trade issues have been of concern to both sides.
While the ministry hopes to resume bilateral talks this year under the Trade and Investment Framework (TIFA), Moriarty’s talks are expected to revolve around more general issues, such as security, the economy or other issues concerning both nations, he said.
The TIFA negotiations have been suspended for two years. The last one was held in Washington in October 2016.
Moriarty accompanied President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during her stopovers in the US en route to Pacific allies in March, when she visited Honolulu, and in New York and Denver when she was on a state visit to Caribbean allies in July, showing the US attaches great importance to Taiwan-US relations, the ministry statement said.
In other news, Yao said the ministry has not yet decided whether to re-establish a representative office in Guam, after the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) on Sunday reported that the government had decided to do so.
In 2017, the ministry closed its representative offices in Guam, Saudi Arabia and Norway for financial reasons.
The government’s decisions on establishing or withdrawing a representative office are made according to the changing international situation and the development of bilateral relations, Yao said, without elaborating.
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.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
Taiwan next year plans to launch its first nationwide census on elderly people living independently to identify the estimated 700,000 seniors to strengthen community-based healthcare and long-term care services, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said on the sidelines of a healthcare seminar that the nation’s rapidly aging population and declining birthrate have made the issue of elderly people living alone increasingly pressing. The survey, to be jointly conducted by the MOHW and the Ministry of the Interior, aims to establish baseline data and better allocate care resources, he
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