Paraguayan Ambassador to Taiwan Marcial Bobadilla Guillen yesterday said that his country resolutely opposes the establishment of ties with Beijing, despite increasing pressure from China.
Companies in Paraguay have been calling for the government to cut ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing, but “Taiwan, not China, is Paraguay’s friend,” Guillen cited Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez as saying.
Benitez hopes Taiwan and Paraguay will continue to deepen that friendship, Guillen said during an inauguration ceremony for the 23-member Republic of China (Taiwan) — Republic of Paraguay Inter-parliamentarian Friendship Association.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞), who launched the association, said she hopes it will be a “bridge between the two countries through which its members can make contributions” to the friendship between the two nations.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Tsao (曹立傑), Overseas Community Affairs Council Vice Chairwoman Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青), Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) and KMT Legislator Sandy Yeh (葉毓蘭) also attended the ceremony at the legislature in Taipei.
Despite the two nations’ geographical distance, Paraguay has been an important ally, demonstrated by Taiwan’s donation of 1 million masks and other medical supplies to help Paraguayan medical workers deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, Wen said.
Although Beijing has been trying to coerce Asuncion into switching recognition by pressuring Paraguayan companies, Paraguayans have the right to choose their friends, Guillen said.
Paraguay is Taiwan’s most important ally in South America, and a strong trading partner, Tsao said.
By the end of this year, Taiwan would have imported an estimated 20,000 tonnes of Paraguayan beef worth US$100 million, 10 times the amount it imported five years ago, he said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS