Taiwan would not receive an official invitation to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on Monday next week due to a lack of official ties with the UK, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
However, the government has expressed its wish to mourn the death of the queen on behalf of its people in other “appropriate ways,” Department of European Affairs Director-General Remus Chen (陳立國) said.
“We are still waiting for an official response from the UK side and will make a public announcement once a final confirmation is made,” Chen said.
Photo: CNA
According to the British government’s guidance, only nations with which the UK has diplomatic relations are invited to pay their respects at the state funeral that is to take place at Westminster Abbey at 11am on Monday.
People in Taiwan began paying their respects to the late monarch at the UK’s representative office in Taipei yesterday by signing a condolence book prepared by the office after the queen’s death on Thursday.
A handful of people, including Taiwanese, Hong Kongers and Britons, waited outside the British Office Taipei before the book was opened for members of the public to sign at about 1pm.
Michael Story, a British national and one of the first visitors to the office to sign the book, told reporters that he wanted to thank the queen for her lifelong service to his country.
Most people in the UK have had some sort of encounter with the queen, so her passing “feels more personal,” Story said.
He first saw the queen when he was 11 or 12, and last saw her at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in May when he returned to the UK to visit his family, he said.
“When you are far away from your home country, something like this, a major national event, tends to affect you perhaps even more than it might when you are at home,” he said.
“All my friends in the UK are attending the [queen’s] funeral or some of the arrangements. Here in Taipei I can come and sign the book,” he added.
A woman surnamed Pang (彭), a Hong Konger who has settled in Taiwan, told reporters that she and two other Hong Kongers signed the book to remember the queen for her contributions to the development of the territory.
“We wanted to write something to pay tribute to the queen’s contributions and devotion throughout her life,” Pang said.
Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪), a Taipei-based sales manager who was first in line to sign the book, said he wrote a message about his gratitude for the queen’s contributions to Hong Kong’s prosperity and world peace.
The book can be signed by the public between 1pm and 4pm until Friday at the office on the 26th floor of President International Tower at No. 9-11 Song Gao Road, the British Office Taipei said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) is to visit the office to sign the book this week, Chen said.
The royal family has an online book of condolence, available on the royal Web site, www.royal.uk/send-message-condolence, for those who wish to pay their respects virtually, the office said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS