While Taiwan’s ties with all 12 countries it has official diplomatic relations with are relatively stable, “extra attention” needs to be paid to Haiti and the Vatican, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said.
During an interview with an online political talk show on Sunday, Lin said that Haiti has been rocked by gang violence and social unrest since former Haitian president Jovenel Moise was assassinated in July 2021.
However, Lin said that Taiwan continues to stand with Haiti and was one of the last nations to close its embassy during the unrest.
Photo: Reuters
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has placed high importance on Latin America and the Caribbean since taking office, he said.
“So I believe Taiwan and the US can work together in this regard,” he added.
Lin said the Holy See has been pushing for closer relations with China during Pope Francis’ tenure.
The Holy See is the only sovereign European entity that has official diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (ROC), the official name of Taiwan.
Relations were established in 1942 when the ROC government was based in the Chinese city of Chongqing.
In 2018, Beijing and the Vatican struck a deal to work together on appointing Chinese bishops, which was renewed for the third time in October last year.
However, Beijing has repeatedly contravened the agreement by unilaterally appointing bishops.
In an interview with the monthly magazine America, which was published on Feb. 28, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, said the Holy See remains committed to dialogue with China on the appointment of bishops in China.
“We believe that it is a process of continuing this dialogue, working on these questions of the appointment of bishops, trying to make this agreement work better, and slowly, hopefully, by doing so, building up a sense of trust and understanding between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China [PRC],” he said.
In response to Gallagher’s comments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that it continues to closely monitor the ongoing dialogue between the PRC and the Holy See.
The ministry said it understands that the Vatican hopes to improve the plight of Chinese Catholics via dialogue with the PRC.
Taiwan would continue to work with the Holy See and the Catholic Church to enhance humanitarian cooperation and jointly safeguard the core value of religious freedom and in so doing, enhance bilateral ties, the ministry added.
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
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
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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