The US is confident that Taiwan can be a leader in helping solve pressing global and regional challenges, a senior Washington official said on Wednesday.
“Taiwan has a lot to offer in the way of capacity, expertise and resources and that is why we continue with our efforts to elevate Taiwan’s international profile and dignity,” US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Tong told a roundtable discussion on the Taiwan-US Global Cooperation Training Framework (GCTF) agreement at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at George Washington University.
That Tong was sitting alongside Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruce Linghu (令狐榮達) added to the meeting’s importance. Under the complex diplomatic protocols that rule US-Taiwan relations, senior officials rarely meet face to face this way.
“Today is unique, an unprecedented setup,” Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office representative Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) said.
The GCTF agreement involves Taiwan and the US working together to train other regional nations on a wide variety of issues.
It was signed in June last year, and Linghu was in Washington for a US Department of State meeting to discuss future projects.
Shen said that the agreement marked the beginning of a new era and was a milestone in US-Taiwan cooperation.
He said it showed that the bilateral relationship could be upgraded and expanded.
“We can easily work together because we all believe in democracy, human rights, freedom and individual rights, peace and stability,” Linghu said.
He said the US-Taiwan relationship was “very close, very robust” and that GCTF was “another important token” of the partnership.
Tong said the foundation of the US-Taiwan partnership was shared values — a commitment to democracy, civil liberties and human rights.
“The people in Taiwan have built a prosperous, free, orderly society with strong institutions worthy of emulation. Taiwan is a model for others,” he said.
Tong said that Taiwan was a responsible global citizen and the US supported Taiwan’s membership in international organizations where statehood was not a requirement, and promoted Taiwan’s meaningful participation in organizations where membership was not possible.
“We all stand to benefit when Taiwan is included in the international arena,” he said.
Tong said the GCTF idea was “quite simple” and resulted in the US and Taiwan conducting training programs for nations throughout the region to assist them in building their own capacities, with topics ranging from women’s rights, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and democratization to global health and energy security.
“Yesterday representatives from the two sides met and discussed the next set of priorities for the GCTF including exploring pressing regional issues and brainstorming how Taiwan and the US can best cooperate together and with others to combat future challenges in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond,” Tong said.
He said women’s empowerment had been discussed at length and that Taiwan has recently elected its first-ever female president, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), whom he said the US looks forward to working with and knowing better in the future.
Tong also said that the ratio of Taiwanese women elected to the legislature is the highest in Asia at 38 percent, which is nearly double the figure in the US.
Tong said the next GCTF project would be an international women’s empowerment conference to be held in Taipei next week.
“We in the US are committed to finding new ways for Taiwan to earn the dignity and respect that its contributions merit,” he said.
Former US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia Randy Schriver said during a panel discussion that GCTF helped make the US-Taiwan relationship “consequential and meaningful.”
“One of my pet issues for a long time has been the need to improve communications at the highest levels,” he said.
“I wish our presidents could talk to each other. I think presidents and elected officials are different creatures and different characters and they think differently and they talk differently and having people at that level talk to each other is important,” Schriver said.
Additional Reporting by CNA
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,
RSS