Given that Taiwan has lost 10 formal diplomatic allies since 2016, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday laid out a new plan to keep the country’s 12 remaining allies in the fold by further helping them develop and prosper.
The 12 UN member countries that still formally recognize the Republic of China are very important to Taiwan, but the days of using “checkbook diplomacy” with Beijing are over, Lin said in an interview with the Central News Agency.
Instead, he said, as China uses every possible means to snatch away more allies from Taiwan, “we are trying to use Taiwan’s successful model or experience to help our allies develop in a way that benefits their country.”
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP Photo
That is why Taiwan is now proposing a seven-point flagship project to help allied countries with their development using the nation’s technological advancements, he said.
The project’s seven key areas cover semiconductors and supply chain resilience, trustworthy digital governance, new energy and carbon credits, smart science park development, smart healthcare, new agricultural innovation and artificial intelligence.
Taiwan has plenty of experience and expertise in these areas and as our allies develop further, Taiwan’s diplomatic ties with them would also grow stronger, Lin said.
The nation is in talks with its 12 allies to tailor projects to their needs, he said.
For example, discussions with Belize are focused on helping it meet Taiwan’s technical requirements so that its shrimp can be exported to Taiwan, he added.
The ministry is also working to encourage more exports of Guatemalan coffee to Taiwan after China banned the import of coffee and macadamia nuts from the Central American country earlier this year without explanation.
Taiwan is not alone in its battle to keep its allies, Lin said, adding that he US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are also working closely with Taiwan in maintaining its formal allies, worried that if others were to defect to Beijing, it could be a breaking point in the Second Island Chain, Lin said.
The project could be diplomatically and economically beneficial to Taiwan as well, he said.
If the ministry helps more Taiwanese businesses set foot in allied countries, it would also boost Taiwan’s presence in these areas and enable companies to venture into markets around the world, he said.
Since former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) first took office in May 2016, the ROC has lost 10 diplomatic allies to the People’s Republic of China amid deteriorating cross-strait relations. The most recent ally to switch sides was Nauru on Jan. 15, just two days after Taiwan’s presidential election.
Taiwan is also working hard to strengthen relations with like-minded countries around the world, including the US, Japan and the Philippines, Lin said.
Lin said that he believes Taiwan’s cordial relations with its most important ally, the US, would not be affected by whoever wins the US presidential election next month and that relations with Japan should also remain close.
Although Japan recently got a new prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, Lin said the two countries would continue to engage in close exchanges on all fronts despite the lack of official diplomatic ties and would remain closely interconnected on security due to their geographic proximity.
They are also continuing their cooperation on humanitarian aid and information sharing, he said.
He also hoped that Taiwan and Japan can further enhance economic and trade relations by signing an economic partnership agreement in the near future to take bilateral integration to an even higher level.
The Philippines is another country in the region that would play a critical role in any potential conflict between Taiwan and China, Lin added.
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
GROUNDED: A KMT lawmaker proposed eliminating drone development programs and freezing funding for counterdrone systems, despite China’s adoption of the technology China has deployed attack drones at air bases near the Taiwan Strait in a strategy aimed at overwhelming Taiwan’s air defense systems through saturation attacks, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. The council’s latest quarterly report on China said that satellite imagery and open-source intelligence indicate that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had converted retired J-6 fighter jets into J-6W drones, which the PLA has stationed at six air bases near Taiwan, five in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province. The report cited J. Michael Dahm, a senior fellow at the US-based Mitchell Institute, as saying that China has
RSS