Israel is an important global start-up hub, and hopefully, based on shared values of democracy and freedom, Taiwan and Israel can continue to deepen their partnership and leverage their respective strengths to build more resilient global supply chains together, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
Tsai made the remarks in a meeting with a delegation from the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, at the Presidential Office in Taipei.
The cross-party delegation was led by Taiwan-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group chair Boaz Toporovsky.
Photo: Screenshot from the Presidential Office’s Web site
It has been more than 30 years since Israel and Taiwan mutually established representative offices, and both countries have worked closely and held regular dialogues in the fields of energy, environment and economics, Tsai said.
Over the past three decades, Taiwan and Israel have also signed 33 agreements and enhanced exchanges in the fields of education and public health, she said, adding that a joint declaration of tourism collaboration was signed last month.
Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute, Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency and other companies hope to have more cooperation opportunities with Israel, Tsai said.
In reference to Iran launching an unprecedented large-scale drone and missile attack on Israel on Saturday evening, Tsai also expressed her sincere concern and condolences, and condemned the use of violence to destroy world peace.
Taiwan is a beacon of freedom and democracy, and Tsai is a role model of democracy and freedom leadership, Toporovsky said.
He expressed his condolences to the victims of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien, and added that the quake has once again shown Taiwan’s strength and resilience to the world.
Taiwan and Israel are good friends, and although people in both countries face difficult situations, both are small and strong democratic countries, and that friendship would become more stable, while cooperation would continue to expand, he said.
Later yesterday at a press conference, Toporovsky said the delegation appreciated the collaboration between Taiwan and Israel and the support shown by Tsai and Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) in the wake of the Iranian attacks.
Regarding what Israel needs at the moment, Boaz Bismuth, one of the four delegation members, said that with 120,000 people forced to evacuate from their homes, Israel needs humanitarian aid, and he said the international community should care about the situation there.
"I think Taiwan felt exactly the grief in which we were the first day [after the attack], and solidarity is the word," he said.
Separately, all Taiwanese nationals in Iran and Israel have been reported safe, Wu said yesterday.
Currently, there are a little more than 20 Taiwanese expatriates who are now naturalized Iranians living in the West Asian country, Wu said.
More than 200 Taiwanese nationals and their spouses and children are in Israel, data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs showed.
The ministry also called on people to refrain from traveling to both countries due to heightened tensions in the Middle East.
It has also issued the second highest-level orange alert for both Israel and Iran.
The ministry uses a four-tiered travel advisory regarding safety and security risks. The lowest level, grey, signifies caution should be exercised; yellow suggests travel should be reconsidered; orange indicates unnecessary travel should be avoided; and red asks nationals not to travel to a destination.
People can call Taiwan’s representative offices in Israel at +972-544-275-204 and in Dubai at +971-50-6453018, as well as the Taiwan Trade Center in Tehran at +98-21-8879-4243.
Additional reporting by CNA
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,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS