The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday thanked the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs for reiterating Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s statements on the importance of peace and stability in Taiwan Strait.
The department on Friday released a statement saying that Marcos expressed Manila’s longstanding position on the importance of peace and stability in Taiwan and the peaceful settlement of differences.
In an interview in New Delhi on Wednesday last week with the Indian news site Firstpost, Marcos said the Philippines is concerned about the safety and welfare of more than 150,000 Filipinos living and working in Taiwan, the department said.
Photo: Bloomberg
“Citing geographic proximity, the president stressed that any conflict in Taiwan could have an impact on the Philippines,” it said.
The foreign affairs department’s statement again explicitly expressed its support for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, as well as Taiwan’s importance to the Philippines, the ministry said.
“It highlights that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is a shared concern among countries in the region,” it said.
The ministry said it highly appreciates the statement and emphasizes that Taiwan, under the “integrated diplomacy” strategy, would continue to deepen its substantial cooperative relationship with the Philippines, and together work toward regional peace and prosperity.
Separately, the ministry yesterday welcomed to Taiwan a delegation of Latvia-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group members, led by the group’s chairwoman Ingrida Circene.
The eight-member delegation, which is to stay until Thursday, is the first Latvian parliamentary group to visit Taiwan in the past few years, the ministry said.
Taiwan and Latvia share the values of freedom and democracy, so hopefully their visit would bring mutual benefits in cooperation across different fields, as well as bolster parliamentary friendship on both sides, it said.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
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