The Taiwan government yesterday raised its travel warning for the India-Pakistan border to the highest level, advising Taiwanese citizens to leave that area as soon as possible, in light of the escalating conflict between the two countries.
The red travel alert was issued for the border area one year after the foreign ministry's Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA) issued a "yellow" alert for India, warning people to exercise caution and reconsider travel plans. It also cautioned Taiwanese citizens already in India to stay alert and avoid lingering in busy public spaces.
According to the ministry, the yellow alert remains in place for India, while the warning for the India-Pakistan border has been raised to red, given that the ongoing conflict between the two countries shows no signs of easing anytime soon.
Photo: AFP
In addition, India has closed a number of its airports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said, advising Taiwanese citizens to leave the border area as soon as possible.
Tensions between India and Pakistan have escalated in recent weeks, following the death of 26 people — most of them Indian tourists — when gunmen last month stormed a scenic mountain area of Kashmir that is administered by India.
India blamed Pakistan for the attack, while Islamabad denied the claim.
Yesterday, India launched retaliatory military strikes on Pakistan, saying it had targeted two militant groups and "terrorist infrastructure" during the operation, which lasted 25 minutes.
Pakistan gave a different account, saying civilians were killed and mosques were hit during the strike. It also said it had shot down five Indian Air Force jets.
Late Wednesday, when BOCA issued the red travel alert for the border area, the foreign ministry said that in case of emergency, Taiwanese citizens in India can call the Taiwan representative office in New Delhi on its emergency hotline +91-9810-642-658, its branch offices in Chennai (+91-96000-99511) or its Mumbai office (+91-8850842243).
Meanwhile, the families of Taiwanese citizens in India can contact MOFA by calling its toll-free phone number 0800-085-095 to seek urgent assistance for their relatives, the ministry said.
Under MOFA's four-color travel alert system, the lowest level is gray, followed by yellow, orange and red.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
RSS