The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) met El Salvador president-elect Mauricio Funes, but did not provide details about the meeting.
“It was a closed-door meeting. But as far as details go, I don’t know much,” MOFA spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said.
Central News Agency reported Ou as describing Funes as “very cordial and friendly.” It said the president-elect had thanked the Republic of China (ROC) government for its long-term support and vowed he would not govern based on political ideology but rather in the overall interests of the country.
The report said that during the meeting, Funes recalled that during his first term in office, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega had sought to break relations with Taiwan, but that during his second term he had decided to maintain relations.
During the trip, Ou also met outgoing president Elias Antonio Saca Gonzalez and foreign minister Marisol Argueta de Barillas, as well as senior Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) members, CNA said.
Chen said that the purpose of Ou’s visit to Latin America was to consolidate the 68-year friendship between Taiwan and the Central American ally, to express gratitude to the incumbent government and to reaffirm Taiwan’s commitment to bilateral cooperation.
Asked if Ou had sought assurances from Funes that El Salvador would maintain relations with Taiwan after taking office in June, Chen said: “[that topic] most likely came up, but it will be further discussed once he [Funes] becomes president.”
A former journalist who led the leftist rebel-group-turned political party FMLN to victory, Funes said during his campaign that he was interested in having closer trade ties with China, given its immense market.
His comments sparked jitters in Taiwanese diplomatic circles and rumors that Funes was considering cutting ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing.
The ministry said that while it did not mind El Salvador developing closer economic ties with China, it did not want El Salvador to abandon Taiwan as a diplomatic ally.
The ministry has said that ties with El Salvador tie remain solid and that it would keep communication lines open with the Funes administration to explain Taiwan’s commitment to the welfare of Salvadorans.
At the Foreign and National Defense Committee last month, Ou said the ministry was strongly in favor of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) personally heading the delegation to attend Funes’ inauguration on June 1.
The ministry and the Presidential Office have yet to provide details on the delegation.
Ou is scheduled to return to Taipei on Tuesday.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS