Nepal has declined Taiwan’s offer of help with search-and-rescue efforts after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the Himalayan country on Saturday, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrew Kao (高振群) said yesterday.
Kao’s comments came as several Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams were getting ready to leave for Nepal to help look for survivors under collapsed buildings.
Answering questions at the Legislative Yuan, Kao said that Kathmandu has only asked for assistance in search and rescue efforts from neighboring countries like China, India and Pakistan, and cited the great distance and the lack of direct flights and diplomatic relations for declining Taiwan’s offer
Photo: CNA
Taiwan would still send a team to Nepal to assess the need for medical assistance, which Taiwan stands ready to provide, he said.
According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokeswoman Anna Kao (高安), soon after the earthquake occurred, Taiwan’s representative to India, who happened to be in Kathmandu at the time, contacted Nepalese officials and told them that the Taiwanese government was willing to provide assistance.
The Nepalese government decided to first ask neighboring countries to send assistance and declined Taiwan’s offer at that time, she said, adding that Kathmandu said it would contact Taipei if it needed more help, she added.
In related news, the ministry said that as of 4:30pm yesterday, there are still 21 Taiwanese in Nepal who have not yet been accounted for.
There are a total of 204 Taiwanese tourists in Nepal, but the other 183 people have been confirmed safe, Anna Kao said in an update on Taiwan’s efforts to locate its citizens since the earthquake hit Nepal on Saturday, killing thousands.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been obtaining information from its overseas offices, from travel records, travel agencies and the relatives of Taiwan citizens who were in Nepal when the earthquake struck, she said.
She said that a group of 24 National Taiwan University alumni who had traveled to Nepal to climb the Himalayas and had been out of contact since Saturday have now told the ministry that they are all safe.
The main airport in Nepal reopened on Sunday afternoon and flights are being gradually being resumed, Anna Kao said, adding that Taiwanese in Nepal should contact their travel agencies and airlines to arrange their return flights home.
Taiwanese in need of assistance can also call the ministry’s representative office in India on the emergency number +919810502610 or the foreign ministry in Taiwan on +886800085095, she said.
The government announced on Saturday that it would donate US$300,000 to Nepal.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs added yesterday that an account has been set up by the Ministry of Health and Welfare for members of the public to make donations to the relief effort.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS