President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will take the opportunity when visiting Taiwan’s South Pacific allies to drum up support for the country’s bid to participate in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said yesterday.
Yang said that Ma hoped to let Taiwan’s allies know that it not only “attaches great importance to the issue of climate change and empathizes with their situation,” but also “would like to work with them” to tackle the problem.
Taiwan is also keen to share its experience of developing alternative energy industries with its allies, especially Tuvalu, Marshall Islands and Kiribati, atoll countries highly vulnerable to climate change, Yang told a press conference yesterday.
Ma and a 90-member entourage, including the Formosa Aboriginal Song and Dance Troupe (原舞者), reporters, five Aboriginal lawmakers and officials, will also visit Nauru, the Solomon Islands and Palau.
MOFA originally arranged for Ma to attend a leadership summit between Taiwan and the six nations last October, but the plan was postponed because of Typhoon Morakot.
“The President has decided to take an approach that differs from previous summit meetings ... to show that we are very concerned about and value the development of the region,” Yang said.
The visits will also demonstrate Taiwan’s determination to actively promote cooperative projects with allies: a sanitation and healthcare project focused on ophthalmology will help the Marshall Islands treat eye disorders and there is a plan to set up a fishery incubation center and hatchery in Kiribati.
Taiwan will help Tuvalu with job training for its fishing industry, assist Nauru to be self-sufficient in at least six kinds of agricultural and livestock products within three years, equip the Solomon Islands’ parliament building with solar panels and hold an exhibition to showcase Taiwan’s Aboriginal culture in Palau, Yang said.
The delegation will leave on on Sunday and return on March 27, with a 60-minute and 90-minute refueling stopover at a civilian airport in Guam on the way there and back respectively.
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