The Taiwan-Europe Interparliamentary Amity Association was inaugurated yesterday, with legislators praising strides made toward closer relations and an invitation for the association chair to visit the European Parliament once the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.
Dozens of officials and lawmakers attended the event online and in person at the legislature in Taipei.
In an address, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應), who since 2016 has served as chairman of the Taiwan-Europe Parliamentary Friendship Association and in 2019 led a delegation to Europe, celebrated the “leaps and bounds” Taiwan-Europe relations have taken and their promising trajectory.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
Although many events have been canceled over the past two years due to the pandemic, Taiwan and Europe have still supported each other through donations of masks and vaccines, Tsai said.
The G7 in June last year declared the importance of stability in the Taiwan Strait, followed by a European Parliament resolution in October calling for closer political relations and cooperation, and the first formal visit to Taiwan by European lawmakers in November, he said.
Taiwan and Europe share the common values of democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law, Tsai said, expressing the hope that relations would continue to be enhanced across more areas.
European Parliament-Taiwan Friendship Group chairman Michael Gahler in a prerecorded address offered his congratulations and extended an invitation to Tsai to visit the European Parliament when the pandemic eases or to meet in Taiwan.
Group vice chairman Andrey Kovatchev touted the past year’s achievements as a solid foundation for further development, while vowing to keep pushing for a bilateral investment agreement.
Group vice chairman Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar said that Taiwan has many friends in Europe who support the nation’s meaningful international participation, and respect its liberal and democratic values.
Group members would therefore continue to call on the EU, Japan, India, New Zealand, Australia and others to stand together in opposition against Chinese aggression toward Taiwan, he said.
At the legislature, European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Filip Grzegorzewski attested to Taiwan’s importance as a trusted partner in the Indo-Pacific region with shared values and goals.
Taiwan and Europe enjoy friendly relations with cooperation in a variety of areas, including human rights, trade, digital innovation, renewable energy, labor and disaster preparedness, Grzegorzewski said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most