Delegations from Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and other friendly countries have arrived in the nation to attend the inauguration of president-elect William Lai (賴清德) and vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) today.
From the presidential election on Jan. 13 until today, 687 foreign guests from 73 delegations have come to Taiwan to deliver congratulatory messages to the newly elected leaders, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Among them, 508 guests from 51 delegations, including eight led by heads of state, are attending today’s inauguration ceremony and other related events, it added.
Photo: CNA
Pope Francis appointed the Holy See’s Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Charles John Brown to visit Taiwan from yesterday to tomorrow as a special envoy, the ministry said.
The Pope asked the Archbishop to congratulate Lai and pray for prosperity of Taiwanese, it said.
Other European countries also sent delegations to Taiwan, including 39 guests from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, the European Parliament and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, the ministry said.
Photo: CNA
Some of the heavyweight guests include former Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite, European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence Vice Chair Rasa Jukneviciene, British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group Chair Lord Rogan, British Trade Envoy to Taiwan Lord Faulkner, Italian Senate Vice President Gian Marco Centinaio and German-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group Chair Klaus-Peter Willsch, it said.
Guests from North America include a delegation led by former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo; a delegation comprising former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, former assistant to the US president and director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese, former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chair Richard Bush and AIT Chair Laura Rosenberger; as well as an 11-member delegation led by Canadian lawmaker Judy Sgro, the ministry said.
Pacific Century Institute chairman and former AIT chair Raymond Burghardt, former AIT director Brent Christensen and Washington Times board of directors chairman Tom McDevitt are also in Taiwan, it added.
Former Singaporean parliament speaker Abdullah Tarmugi, South Korean National Assembly member and South Korea-Taiwan Parliamentarian Friendship Association president Cho Kyoung-tae, and Australian senators Raff Ciccone and David Fawcett also arrived in Taiwan, the ministry said.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
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