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La Prensa reported that the Nicaraguan National Assembly on Tuesday repealed a bilateral free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan, which had been signed in December 2006.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On Tuesday, Nicaraguan lawmakers also repealed seven other agreements with Taiwan, including a US$20.2 million loan signed in 1998 with the Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China to finance an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.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
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