Paraguayan President Santiago Pena is to lead a delegation to Taiwan from Thursday to Sunday next week for a state visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
President William Lai (賴清德) is to welcome Pena with military honors on Friday next week, host a state banquet and confer on him the Order of Brilliant Jade with Grand Cordon in recognition of his contributions to Taiwan-Paraguay ties, the ministry said.
During his stay, Pena would witness the signing of several bilateral cooperation documents, visit the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan and receive an honorary doctorate from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, it added.
Photo: EPA
The Paraguayan delegation would also include officials such as Paraguayan Minister of Foreign Affairs Ruben Ramirez Lezcano and Minister of Industry and Commerce Marco Riquelme, as well as representatives of leading Paraguayan companies, it said.
Paraguay is one of Taiwan 12 diplomatic allies around the world. The two countries established diplomatic relations 69 years ago.
Pena’s previous visit to Taiwan was in May 2024, when he attended Lai’s inauguration.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
UNFOUNDED CONCERNS: Public concerns that allowing Indian workers to come and work in Taiwan would lead to increased sex crimes are baseless, the labor ministry said Amid public concern over the government’s plan to bring Indian workers to Taiwan, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) pointed to past intake and said that public safety remained stable. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on April 9 told the legislature that the first group of Indian workers could arrive as early as the end of this year. Taiwan and India signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in February 2024 to address Taiwan’s labor shortage. The MOU was sent to the Legislative Yuan for review in mid-2024 and received cross-party backing, prompting the MOL to begin follow-up negotiations with India, Hung said. Public
RSS