The Nicaraguan government has given the staff of Taiwan’s embassy two weeks to depart, after Managua severed diplomatic ties with Taipei on Friday last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said on Wednesday.
The decision for Taiwanese staff to depart before Thursday next week was arrived at during negotiations between the two sides in the wake of the diplomatic split, and, based on the principle of reciprocity, the Taiwanese government requested that the staff of Nicaragua’s embassy in Taipei leave by the same deadline, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said.
Taiwan’s embassy in Managua is preparing to close, and staff members and their families — a total of 52 people — would depart in stages, Ou confirmed, after La Prensa newspaper in Nicaragua had reported about the departure the previous day.
Photo: Sarah Wu, Reuters
It is customary for countries to take at least a month to recall their respective personnel following a severing of diplomatic ties, a diplomatic source said.
La Prensa reported that the Nicaraguan National Assembly on Tuesday repealed a bilateral free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan, which had been signed in December 2006.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Ministry of Economic Affairs had said that the FTA would remain in effect, despite formal ties being severed.
On Wednesday, the ministry said that either side could withdraw from the FTA by giving six months’ notice, although Nicaragua had not yet notified Taiwan.
On Tuesday, Nicaraguan lawmakers also repealed seven other agreements with Taiwan, including a US$20.2 million loan signed in 1998 with the Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China to finance an irrigation project in western Nicaragua, La Prensa reported.
With the loss of Nicaragua, Taiwan has 14 diplomatic allies.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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