The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked 12 allies and like-minded countries for supporting Taiwan’s participation in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) assembly in Canada, although it was again rejected entry this year.
A UN specialized agency, the ICAO is holding its 40th three-yearly assembly in Montreal until Friday next week.
Expressing regret over Taiwan again being rejected by the organization due to political factors, the ministry said that the Taipei Flight Information Region managed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration is crucial, as Taiwan is an aviation hub connecting Northeast and Southeast Asia.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan was first denied participation at the assembly in 2016, it said.
Nonetheless, the nation has garnered support from more countries than in previous years, it added.
In an unprecedented milestone, the foreign ministers of the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan in April said in the communique of their G7 meeting in France that they “support the substantive participation of all active members of the international aviation community in ICAO forums. Excluding some of its members for political purposes compromises aviation safety and security.”
The ministry said that 12 of Taiwan’s 15 diplomatic allies — Belize; Guatemala; Haiti; Honduras; Nauru; the Marshall Islands; Palau; Eswatini; Tuvalu; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — wrote to ICAO president Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu or ICAO secretary-general Liu Fang (柳芳) to urge Taiwan’s participation in the assembly.
Those allies would continue speaking up for Taiwan at the assembly or express their support by attending receptions in Canada hosted by a Taiwanese delegation, it said.
Former NATO secretary-general and Danish politician Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Friday last week wrote in an op-ed in Canadian daily the Globe and Mail that “Taiwan was a founding member of the ICAO, but China is again seeking to deny Taipei access to the meeting, even though Taiwanese airspace serves 1.7 million flights a year.”
“Even though Taiwan is playing by the rules, the democratic world responds with indifference, or even fear of upsetting China,” which sends “a signal that Beijing can demand and threaten its way around democratic capitals,” he wrote.
Reminding the ICAO of its goal of promoting a “seamless sky” and “uniting aviation,” the ministry reiterated its call for the organization to seek proper means to include Taiwan, instead of being manipulated by a single member state.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash