Slovakia is to donate 10,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan in return for a donation of masks last year, the Slovak Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei said yesterday, following an announcement by the EU.
The European Commission on Thursday said that it has supported the sharing of more than 3 million COVID-19 vaccines with nations outside of the EU through the European Civil Protection Mechanism, including the 10,000 doses from Slovakia.
That makes Slovakia the second European nation to announce a plan to donate COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan. Lithuania on June 22 announced that it would donate 20,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the nation, which are expected to arrive by the end of September.
Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib on June 15 urged the Czech government to share COVID-19 vaccines with Taiwan, although it did not act on his call.
“Slovakia does not forget its friends. Last year, Taiwan sent masks to Slovakia when the country was in difficult times. Now Slovakia hopes to make slight contributions in return by donating 10,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan,” the Slovak office wrote on Facebook in Mandarin and Slovakian.
The Taipei Representative Office in Bratislava yesterday wrote on Facebook that Slovakia had as early as late May expressed its intention to donate medical supplies to Taiwan.
To ensure the smooth handling of the donation through the EU mechanism, the Slovak government is still working on legal procedures, including confirming the brand of vaccine and the schedule, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement.
Ou thanked Slovakia for its sincere friendship and goodwill, adding that Slovakia and Taiwan have been maintaining close cooperation across different sectors.
Slovakia was the first EU member state to add Taiwan to its safe nations list in October last year, Ou said.
The government and civic groups last year donated 700,000 masks to Slovakia, she said.
Slovakia had planned to send a delegation to Taiwan in late May or last month to meet with the nation’s economic and technological agencies, two sources familiar with the matter told the Taipei Times.
The visit appeared to have been shelved due to the local COVID-19 outbreak, but the ministry had refused to confirm the plan.
Later last night, a Central News Agency cited sources as saying that a Slovak delegation would make a visit to Taiwan in September.
In related news, the government has donated 200 oxygen concentrators for the treatment of severe COVID-19 cases to Indonesia, where the number of daily infections has surged to more than 20,000.
The devices arrived in Jakarta on Monday and a donation ceremony was held on Wednesday in Taipei, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, with all direct flights between Jakarta and Taipei suspended due to the pandemic, a chartered flight arranged by the Taiwanese business community is to bring Taiwanese home from Indonesia on July 28, the ministry said.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS