The Nepalese government is considering accepting Taiwan’s offer to help with search-and-rescue efforts for Saturday’s earthquake, while Taiwan is also seeking to cooperate with the US to transport relief supplies to the Himalayan country, Cabinet spokesman Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said yesterday.
Despite previously turning down Taiwan’s offer to send search-and-rescue teams, the Nepalese government said it has changed its position and is willing to consider the offer, Sun said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested that the National Fire Agency put together a search-and-rescue team ready for immediate mobilization, Sun said.
Photo provided by Fo Guang Shan
Kathmandu had refused help from Taipei in search-and-rescue operations after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake for various reasons, including the distance between the two nations and the lack of diplomatic relations, the ministry said.
Sun made the remarks after a weekly Cabinet meeting, at which Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) gave a briefing on what the government and civil sectors had done to reach out to Nepalese affected by the earthquake.
Lin said the ministry has asked the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) for cooperation with the US to ship relief supplies to Nepal, Sun said.
The AIT told reporters that it “is aware of Taiwan’s interest and willingness to provide disaster relief and assistance to Nepal.”
“We are exploring ways in which we could cooperate to assist the earthquake victims,” AIT spokesman Joseph Bookbinder said.
So far, four non-government teams from Taiwan have arrived in Nepal to assist with the rescue effort and deliver relief supplies, the ministry said.
It added that two more teams organized by Taiwanese charity groups were preparing to join the relief efforts this week.
One of the teams is a 60-member group from the New Taipei City-based Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps, Department of NGO International Affairs Director-General Ray Mou (牟華瑋) said at a news conference.
The group, which is scheduled to depart for Nepal tomorrow, consists of doctors, nurses and volunteers, and is set to begin offering medical services to injured people as soon as it arrives, the organization told reporters, adding that its team is set to stay in Nepal for one week.
The Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation is also preparing to send a second team, Mou said.
The ministry has donated US$300,000 to Nepal, while three accounts were set up to accept donations from the public.
The number of Taiwanese known to have been in Nepal when the earthquake struck was 247, 245 of whom have been confirmed safe, according to an update provided by the ministry yesterday.
The ministry is still using various channels to try to reach the two who remain unaccounted for, ministry spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) said.
The first batch of relief supplies was shipped from Taiwan on Tuesday and the government is exploring the possibility of shipping more supplies via chartered planes operated by DHL and FedEX, the ministry said.
The ministry also has information available on its Web site on designated collection points where the public can donate relief supplies, it said.
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