Taiwan has pledged US$3 million to the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF) to help address climate issues in the Pacific islands, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday.
“On behalf of Taiwan, Prime Minister Feleti Penitala Teo of Tuvalu, Taiwan’s ally in the region, announced at the Pacific Islands Forum that Taiwan will participate and support the PRF,” Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director Michael Lin (林昭宏) said.
The donation, which is to be distributed over three years, was first announced at the Pacific Islands Forum in the Solomon Islands last week, Lin said.
Photo: Yang Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
“Taiwan, as an indispensable partner that has long contributed to the PRF, has decided to donate US$3 million to the PRF over three years,” Lin said.
The PRF had already raised more than US$170 million, with Australia promising to donate US$64 million, the US to donate US$25 million and Japan pledging US$3 million, he said.
Taiwan and like-minded partners would continue to contribute to peace, stability, regional development and prosperity in the Pacific island region, he said.
“Taiwan has always upheld the ‘Pacific Way’ honored by PIF members when participating in affairs in the Pacific, adopting the spirit of diversity and inclusion,” he said.
The PRF is the first Pacific-led regional fund dedicated to improving community resilience in the region, helping vulnerable people of the region who are exposed to climate change and disaster risks, the fund’s Web site says.
It seeks to build the resilience, preparedness and the adaptive capacity of poor communities before disasters strike, it says.
The five-day PIF summit concluded on Friday last week.
This year, the host country did not invite dialogue and development partners to the summit because a review of each country’s relationship with the Pacific islands had not been completed, Lin said.
“Although it is very regrettable that Taiwan could not interact with PIF members and other partners through this event in the Solomon Islands, we respect the hosting country’s decision made through a PIF internal mechanism,” he said.
Media had earlier reported that the decision was a result of political interference by China to block Taiwan’s participation.
A communique issued by PIF members at the end of the summit reaffirmed Taiwan’s involvement in its events as a “development partner,” Lin said, adding that it means Taiwan’s status as a development partner, established by the 1992 PIF leaders’ communique, would remain the same.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS