DIPLOMACY
Ambassador appointed
Paraguay has appointed a new ambassador after leaving the position vacant for more than a year, with the new envoy expected to take up the post in Taipei in the coming weeks, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday. Carlos Jose Fleitas Rodriguez was named as the South American ally’s ambassador late last month, Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Director-General Florencia Hsie (謝妙宏) said. The seasoned diplomat has close ties with Taiwan, having previously served as the minister at Paraguay’s embassy in Taiwan in 2010 and then as its charge d’affaires in June 2012. He also received a master’s degree in social sciences from Tamkang University in 2017, Hsie said. His most recent posting has been as consul in Curitiba, Brazil, where he has served since June 2018.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Military monitoring PRC
The military yesterday said it had a clear grasp of the activities of nearby Chinese forces a day after the Japan Self-Defense Force said that China’s navy had deployed an aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific Ocean. Military spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said the military closely monitors Chinese maneuvers in the waters and airspace around Taiwan, and would take “appropriate response measures,” without elaborating. The Japan Self-Defense Force’s Joint Staff Office on Monday announced that the Liaoning aircraft carrier and seven destroyers and supply vessels had left the East China Sea and passed through waters between Japan’s Okinawa and Miyako islands before entering the Pacific Ocean. Warships in the battle group included the Type 055 large destroyer Nanchang, the Type 052D destroyer Chengdu and the Type 901 comprehensive supply ship Hulunhu, among others, the forces said. Local media reported that the battle group is expected to hold exercises in waters east of Taiwan.
FOREIGN AID
Funds donated to refugees
Representative to Slovakia Lee Nan-yang (李南陽) on Monday signed an accord with non-governmental organization Ukrainian-Slovak Initiative, committing Taiwan to donate US$150,000 in aid for Ukrainian refugee children in Slovakia. The funds would be used to help set up a kindergarten for children who fled to Slovakia after Russia invaded their nation on Feb. 24. Apart from the donation, Lee, on behalf of the government, also asked the organization to transfer an additional US$60,000 to Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, which has been shelled by Russia. Ludmila Verbicka, head of the initiative, said that Taiwan’s timely assistance had given hope to Ukrainian children and women forced to leave their homes, and offered her thanks in Chinese.
POLITICS
Eric Chu to visit the US
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) is to visit the US next month to meet with US officials and experts, and discuss Taiwan-US ties, cross-strait relations and Taiwan’s defense capabilities, a KMT official said yesterday. Chu is to leave Taiwan on June 1 and make stops in Washington, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles during the 12-day trip, KMT Department of International Affairs director Alexander Huang (黃介正) said in a radio interview. He is to meet with officials from the White House, the National Security Council, and the departments of state and defense, and would also attend a plaque-unveiling ceremony to reopen the KMT’s liaison office in Washington after a hiatus of more than 13 years, said Huang, who is to head the office.
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
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