President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday told the Palauan National Congress that Taiwan and the Pacific Island nation were “democratic bastions” and should cooperate further to bring prosperity to both countries.
“Taiwan and Palau are both important democratic bastions in the fight against the expansion of authoritarianism,” Lai said, adding that the two nations had championed the values of democracy and freedom.
In addition, Taiwan and Palau, which celebrated the 25th anniversary of formal diplomatic ties this year, have had fruitful exchanges in the areas of climate change response, education, business and tourism, Lai said.
Photo: CNA
The president thanked the Palauan legislature for its longstanding support for Taiwan’s international participation, which had paved the way for his country to contribute to global issues such as public health, climate change, aviation safety and transnational crimes.
He also revealed a new aid project for the Pacific ally, saying that Taiwan would support the Palauan legislature in improving its audiovisual and cybersecurity equipment and installing an electronic voting system.
Lai hoped the project would serve as a “model” for the South Pacific in its pursuit of digital transformation and bring prosperity to the people of both Taiwan and Palau.
Photo: CNA
The address followed a bilateral talk between Lai and Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr at the latter’s office.
Lai arrived in Palau yesterday afternoon for the last stop of his weeklong South Pacific tour, which also included stops in the US state of Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Guam.
Lai, who embarked on his first overseas trip as president on Nov. 30, was to return home this evening.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS