Nauruan President Lionel Aingimea, who is in Taiwan for his first foreign visit since assuming office in August, yesterday reaffirmed Nauru-Taiwan relations amid ongoing Chinese expansion in the South Pacific.
Aingimea on Friday arrived in Taiwan for a five-day state visit, his third to Taiwan and first as president.
The bilateral relations are significant, Aingimea said, adding that he sees Taiwan as family.
Photo: CNA
“When you start using words like family, it takes it up to a different level, a level that ensures that when things happen within family, family sticks together,” Aingimea said in an interview with the Central News Agency.
He said that Nauru-Taiwan relations are not limited to development, but also include a personal element, citing as an example Nauruans who study in Taiwan and take Taiwanese culture and customs with them when they return home.
He also enumerated Taiwan’s assistance to Nauru in education, police matters, agriculture, fisheries and renewable energy, as well as Taiwan’s contribution to the Intergenerational Trust Fund established in 2015 by several regional partners.
China has not attempted to pressure Nauru to switch diplomatic relations, probably because Beijing knows Nauru’s political stance and realizes that it would be a wasted effort to approach Nauru on that issue, Aingimea said.
“We are concerned about China’s increased presence in the Pacific. We reject the ‘one China’ principle and the ‘one country, two systems’ framework, and recognize that Taiwan is a sovereign and independent nation,” he said.
Aingimea welcomed a proposal by Tuvaluan Minister for Justice, Communication and Foreign Affairs Simon Kofe, who visited Taiwan last month, to form a coalition that supports Taiwan against China’s suppression.
Australia and New Zealand have taken steps to counter China’s expansionist strategy in the South Pacific, with initiatives such as “Pacific Step-up” and “Pacific Reset,” while the US is to hold a meeting with its allies next year for relevant discussions, Aingimea said.
To counter China’s dollar diplomacy, the three traditional partners also increased assistance to Nauru, Aingimea said, adding that there are no Beijing-funded infrastructure projects in Nauru.
However, a new port is being constructed in the country by a Chinese company, he said, adding it is an Asian Development Bank project and the Chinese company won the bid.
Nauru would need Taiwan’s expertise to operate the port when it is completed, so its economy can diversify from its heavy reliance on fishing and phosphate mining, Aingimea said.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
RSS