Dozens of Taiwanese disaster relief and healthcare workers, representatives of charity groups and a medical team led by government officials yesterday left for Nepal, but Taiwan is still waiting for permits from Kathmandu to send search-and-rescue teams, authorities said.
A 37-member team from the Buddha’s Light International Association and physicians and nurses from Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital left in the morning, taking 5 tonnes of relief supplies, including blankets, tents, dried foods and medical supplies.
The team is scheduled to stay in Nepal for five days, International Headquarters Search and Rescue head Lu Cheng-tsung (呂正宗) said.
Photo: Yao Kai-shiou Taipei Times
Six medical personnel from the government-sponsored Taiwan International Health Action led by a Ministry of Health and Welfare official and accompanied by two Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials familiar with the situation in Nepal left in the afternoon.
Representative to India James Tien (田中光), who has been in Kathmandu since the earthquake on Saturday, would assist the relief workers if needed, foreign ministry spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) said.
Kathmandu has not yet accepted Taiwan’s offer to send official search-and-rescue teams.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrew Kao (高振群) on Monday said that Kathmandu has asked for search-and-rescue help only from neighbors such as China, India and Pakistan, and cited the great distance and the lack of direct flights and diplomatic relations for the handling of Taiwan’s offer.
Early yesterday at a regular news conference, Ministry of National Defense spokesperson David Lo (羅紹和) said the ministry has had everything ready to dispatch C-130 aircraft from Pingtung County to Nepal.
However, anonymous sources at the defense ministry said it would be more efficient to deliver aid via commercial flights than military aircraft because it would take the C-130s 11 to 14 hours to reach Nepal as they would have to fly over open ocean instead of crossing China’s airspace, the sources said.
The lack of diplomatic relations with most nations in the region would also create problems if they were to allow the aircraft through their airspace or grant them necessary refueling stops en route to Nepal, the sources added.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary