US Ambassador to Palau John Hennessey-Niland, who arrived on Sunday with a delegation led by Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr, is the first US ambassador to visit Taiwan in more than 40 years, signaling that Washington is becoming more active in engaging Taipei, academics said on Sunday.
The delegation is visiting Taiwan to promote tourism to Palau through a “travel bubble,” which would ease COVID-19 restrictions on travel between the two countries.
During a short address after the delegation’s arrival at the airport, Whipps said Hennessey-Niland, who has served as US ambassador to Palau since March last year, was among the delegation.
The visit marks the first time a US ambassador has publicly visited Taiwan since Washington cut ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing in 1979, said Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a senior analyst at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
The visit shows that the US no longer treats interaction between its ambassadors and Taiwan as taboo, said Lin Ting-hui (林廷輝), deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Society of International Law.
It also demonstrates that the US is becoming more active in its engagement with Taiwan, he added.
He foresees more cooperation among Taiwan, the US and Palau, as the three countries work together on security and defense, he said.
Taiwan has maritime cooperation agreements with Pacific allies Palau, Nauru and the Marshall Islands, while Palau and the US have cooperated on defense, and Taiwan and the US on Thursday last week signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a coast guard working group, Lin said.
Taiwan could work with its allies and the US to conduct security exercises in the Pacific or even join the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, a biennial defense exercise organized every two years by the US, he said.
Hennessey-Niland’s visit demonstrates that Taiwan-US cooperation has become multilateral, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said yesterday.
This kind of multilateralism can also be seen in visits that US ambassadors to the Netherlands and Eswatini have made to their Taiwanese counterparts, which is a positive development, he added.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS