Marshall Islands Parliamentary Speaker Kenneth Kedi on Monday said that his nation would always support Taiwan based on the two nations’ shared values of freedom and democracy.
Kedi, who arrived on a four-day visit on Monday morning, told Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) at a meeting in Taipei that his nation’s parliament recently passed a resolution expressing the Pacific island nation’s support for Taiwan.
The resolution praises Taiwan’s democratic achievements, and affirms that Taiwan is a worthy partner for peace and prosperity in the region, Kedi said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The Marshall Islands was especially intent on passing the resolution at a time when China continues to heighten its hostility toward Taiwan and its allies because of its desire for peace and stability in the region, Kedi said.
Su thanked Kedi for helping seal a bilateral cooperation agreement on policing and another pact on strategic cooperation signed between the two nations last year.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who met with Kedi and his delegation at the Presidential Office later in the day, thanked the Marshall Islands for its firm backing of Taiwan.
Taiwan values highly its relations with the Pacific island nation and expects exchanges to continue to expand across a broad spectrum of fields, such as education, culture and medicine, Tsai said.
In related news, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it is recruiting participants for its youth ambassador program to help build ties with nations in the Pacific, and South and Southeast Asia.
The ministry plans to recruit 75 Taiwanese aged 18 to 35 who are graduate or undergraduate students and send them on 10-day trips to two nations, Department of NGO International Affairs Director-General Scott Lai (賴銘琪) said.
The ambassadors would be divided into three groups of 25 delegates and visit the Solomon Islands and Kiribati, the Philippines and Malaysia, or Thailand and India, Lai said.
The program aims to enhance people-to-people exchanges between Taiwan and the targeted nations, he said.
The ministry is especially looking for participants who speak Malay, Lai said.
It is also hoping that people with expertise in healthcare, engineering or agriculture would sign up for the program, he added.
The ambassadors would visit non-governmental organizations and institutions in their areas of expertise in the targeted nations to make sure their skills are put to good use, Lai said.
Application forms can be downloaded from youthtaiwan.net and taiwanngo.tw.
Applications should be submitted before April 30.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
RSS