Iceland on Saturday received a compensation proposal from Britain and the Netherlands over the collapsed Icesave bank that heavily slashes Reykjavik’s repayment burden, the prime minister said.
“The proposal includes lowering to a huge extent the repayment burden for Iceland,” Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir told RUV public radio.
Britain and the Netherlands are requesting the reimbursement of billions of dollars from Reykjavik for compensating 320,000 British and Dutch savers who lost their money in the collapse of the online Icesave bank.
The Icelandic government has been negotiating with Britain and the Netherlands in a bid to avoid putting the divisive Icesave issue to a referendum, which polls predict would be largely won by a “no” vote.
“There is an obvious will among government in the UK and the Netherlands to get an agreement with the Icelandic government,” Icelandic Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson told reporters following a meeting at which the proposal was examined.
Iceland’s parliament on Dec. 31 narrowly approved the terms of a payout to London and The Hague, but Iceland’s president refused to sign the bill and instead put the issue to a referendum to be held on March 6.
The Icelandic government will respond to Britain and the Netherlands with its assessment of the new proposal within the next two days following a meeting between party leaders on Saturday, the radio reported on its Web site.
The main feature of the plan is a floating interest rate designed to ease Iceland’s burden as it repays US$5 billion to the two EU countries, a source familiar with the situation said on Friday.
The offer maintains other elements of a deal the three sides agreed in October, including full debt repayment and a seven-year grace period, the source said.
A rejection of the bill would further damage Iceland’s standing with capital markets and could be interpreted as a vote of no confidence in the government and cause a political crisis.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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