The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that Alain Richard, chairman of the French Senate’s Taiwan Friendship Group, would soon lead a delegation to Taiwan.
A report by French media outlet La Lettre A earlier this month said that despite pressure from Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye (盧沙野), the French Senate Group for Exchange and Studies with Taiwan had scheduled a visit to Taiwan early this month.
The delegation is to be led by Richard and would include two group vice chairmen — French senators Max Brisson and Andre Vallini, it said.
The ministry yesterday confirmed that Richard would lead a delegation to Taiwan.
In the face of Lu’s repeated verbal intimidation and obstruction, Richard’s determination to visit Taiwan strengthened, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said.
Richard’s friendship toward Taiwan, and his commitment to democracy and freedom are admirable and touching, she said.
The ministry, the Taipei Representative Office in France and the delegation are working closely to coordinate Richard’s itinerary, she said.
The visit would abide by domestic COVID-19 prevention regulations, and be planned as a “diplomatic bubble,” she added.
Richard, a member of the French ruling party La Republique En Marche, has been a member of the French National Assembly and the French Senate for nearly three decades. He previously served as minister of defense.
Since becoming chairman of the Taiwan Friendship Group in 2015, Richard has visited Taiwan twice — in 2015 and in 2018.
He facilitated the French Senate’s passage on May 6 of a resolution supporting Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, marking the first time the French Senate passed a resolution in support of the nation.
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
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS