The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday thanked departing Representative to the US Stanley Kao (高碩泰) for his contributions to US-Taiwan relations and welcomed Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), who is to succeed him.
The AIT released a statement thanking Kao for his service, a move it rarely makes, a day after Kao issued a farewell letter to extend his appreciation to overseas Taiwanese compatriots for their support during his time in Washington.
Kao has spent half of his career in diplomacy advancing the Taiwan-US partnership, with four postings to the US. His current tenure is to end this month.
Photo taken from the TECRO Facebook page
Taiwan-US ties could be the best they have ever been, Kao said in the letter, adding that the warm relationship of the past few years demonstrates strong mutual trust.
Reviewing diplomatic milestones of his time in the US, Kao said that a telephone conversation between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and then-US president elect Donald Trump on Dec. 2, 2016, was one.
Over the past four years, Tsai made six successful transits through the US, nearly 100 public messages by high-ranking US officials praised Taiwan, and the US Congress has passed bills to bolster the bilateral relationship, including the Taiwan Travel Act, the 2018 Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, last year’s Taiwan Allies International Protection and the Enhancement Initiative Act and the National Defense Authorization Act for next fiscal year, he said.
“Representative Kao’s long experience working with US institutions helped drive a number of important achievements that have brought the United States and Taiwan closer together,” the AIT said.
“From successful transits by President Tsai to historic agreements to sell tanks and F-16Vs to Taiwan, together we have advanced Taiwan’s international standing and ability to defend itself,” it said.
The AIT also praised Kao’s leadership, endorsed his efforts to fight for Taiwan’s participation at the World Health Assembly and technical meetings of the WHO, and thanked him for coordinating Taiwan’s mask donations to frontline medical workers across the US amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The AIT congratulated Hsiao on her appointment for “this critical role,” expressing confidence in her strong record of promoting US-Taiwan relations in the areas of security cooperation and the economy.
“We are confident that the US-Taiwan friendship will continue to flourish during her tenure,” it said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS