The Presidential Office yesterday dismissed speculation that the country’s diplomatic ties with Honduras were shaky as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) prepares to visit the country one day later than scheduled.
Saying that arrangements for Ma’s visit were still being made, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) added that Ma would likely stay in Panama for one more day because Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya may still be out of the country the day Ma had originally planned to arrive, despite Zelaya’s pledge that he would have returned by then.
“To avoid any misunderstandings, we decided to stay in Panama for one more day,” Wang said, dismissing speculation that the decision stemmed from unfriendly moves by Tegucigalpa toward Taiwan.
Wang said Taiwan’s relationship with its ally was sound and that both sides had fully cooperated during negotiations.
It has been widely reported that Tegucigalpa is unhappy with Ma’s foreign aid policy. Some local media have speculated that Ma had planned to visit Honduras during his last state visit to Central America earlier this month, but decided to postpone it.
When Ma met Zelaya earlier this month in El Salvador, Ma said he would stop providing more funding to Honduras for the construction of a hydraulic power plant and instead offer technical support while letting the Honduran government raise the remainder of the money on its own.
Ma will make state visits to three Central American countries later this month. The main purpose of the trip is to attend the inauguration of Panamanian president-elect Ricardo Martinelli on Wednesday.
The 169-person delegation will depart on Monday and return on July 8, with transfer stops in San Francisco on the way there and in Honolulu on the way back. The trip will also take Ma to Nicaragua and Honduras.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS