Former NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen arrived in Taiwan yesterday morning for a three-day visit, during which he is to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Rasmussen, who is also a former Danish prime minister, was welcomed by Department of European Affairs Director Vincent Yao (姚金祥) at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport just after 7am.
During his stay, Rasmussen, who founded the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, would also meet with Vice President William Lai (賴清德), Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), lawmakers and think tank experts, the ministry said in a statement.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Rasmussen is the first former NATO secretary-general to make an official visit to Taiwan, the foundation said a separate news release.
“The visit will focus on support from the democratic world for Taiwan and closer EU-Taiwan relations,” the foundation said.
Rasmussen looks forward to his visit, his first in nearly three decades since he last was in Taiwan in 1994 as a member of the Danish parliament, the foundation quoted the official as saying.
“The changes in Taiwan in the intervening 30 years have been immense,” Rasmussen said. “Taiwan’s democratic transformation would be impressive under any circumstances. The fact it has happened while facing daily threats and provocations from a nuclear-armed neighbor make it remarkable.”
The trip was a chance to show his support for Taiwan and “its ability to choose its own future freely, peacefully and independently,” he said.
Rasmussen was the 24th prime minister of Denmark, from 2001 to 2009, and the 12th secretary-general of NATO, from August 2009 to October 2014.
In 2017, Rasmussen launched the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of democracy and free markets across the globe.
In this role, he hosts the annual Copenhagen Democracy Summit, which was first held in 2018.
Wu visited Denmark for the annual summit in 2019, while Tsai has also been invited to give a virtual speech at the summit annually since 2020, the ministry said.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be