The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it welcomes a planned visit from Sunday to Friday next week of a delegation from the European Parliament.
Eleven members of the European Parliament, led by Michael Gahler, chairman of the European Parliament-Taiwan Friendship Group, would be the first delegation from the parliament to visit Taiwan next year, Department of European Affairs Director Eric Huang (黃鈞耀) said.
The group is to meet with President William Lai (賴清德), visit the National Security Council, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), and attend a banquet hosted by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), Huang said.
Photo: EPA
The members would also meet with representatives of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, and hold talks with specialists on a range of issues including countering misinformation and cyberattacks, hybrid security threats, Taiwan-EU economic and trade cooperation, and situations in the Indo-Pacific region and the Taiwan Strait, as well as visit Kinmen County, he said.
“Serving as the chair of the European Parliament-Taiwan Friendship Group and cochair of the Formosa Club in Europe since the previous European Parliament term [2019 to last year], Gahler has been a long-standing supporter of Taiwan,” Huang said.
Gahler has been dedicated to promoting parliamentary exchanges between Taiwan and the EU, and assisting Taiwan to expand its network of supporters within the European Parliament, he said.
In the European Parliament term that began last year and runs through 2029, he has also facilitated passage of a resolution condemning the People’s Republic of China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758 and its ongoing military provocations toward Taiwan, Huang said.
“The ministry welcomes the European Parliament’s continued support for Taiwan through concreate actions,” he said, adding that Taiwan would continue to work with the EU and like-minded European nations to bolster democratic resilience, and build a solid alliance of shared values.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS