President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) could meet US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton tomorrow when the two attend the inauguration of El Salvadoran president-elect Mauricio Funes.
Ambassador to El Salvador Carlos Liao (廖世傑) said Ma would be seated on the stage next to outgoing Panamanian President Martin Torrijos and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, while Clinton was due to sit off the stage with other dignitaries.
There is a big chance that the two would meet “accidentally,” he said.
PHOTO: CNA
Despite Funes’ public advocacy of forging closer ties with Beijing during his election campaign, Liao said China had not arranged to send a delegation to the inauguration before registration closed on Monday.
Liao was tight-tipped about Ma’s bilateral talks with other leaders, saying arrangements were still being made.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Javier Hou (侯清山) said prior to Ma’s trip that the ministry was arranging bilateral meetings between Ma and leaders and representatives attending the inauguration. Ortega and Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya had agreed to attend the talks, Hou said.
Ma is leading a 159-member delegation to attend Funes’ inauguration, bringing first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青), local government heads, student representatives, college principals and a performance group.
He made a one-night stopover in Los Angeles on his way to El Salvador and will stop in Seattle on his way back. Ma, who left Belize for Guatemala on Thursday, had talks with Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, who welcomed Ma with a 21-gun salute and a military honor guard.
The two issued a joint statement after exchanging views on bilateral and multi-lateral relations as well as the international situation.
Ma and Colom expressed satisfaction over Taiwan and Guatemala’s long-standing friendship and close cooperation, pledging to strengthen joint efforts in politics, foreign affairs, trade, technology and culture. They also recognized the progress of a cooperation project for highway expansion.
Ma, who gave Colom a Taiwanese bicycle as a gift, instructed the embassy to give Colom’s wife another one after the Guatemalan president mentioned that he and his wife have recently developed a new passion for cycling.
Previously in Belize, Ma and Belizean Prime Minister Dean Barrow held talks and reached a consensus on strengthening cooperation in fishing and agriculture.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊), who accompanied Ma on the trip, said detailed projects would be proposed after each side’s government officials, experts and academics conclude their visits.
“We want to teach them how to fish, and not just give them fish,” he said.
Ou said learning from previous experience, the ministry would no longer distribute foreign aid as lump sums but instead distribute it in accordance with the progress of cooperation projects.
Ma and his delegation are scheduled to leave for El Salvador today.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
RSS