Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Keisal Peters and Rossana Briceno, special envoy for the development of families and children of Belize, arrived in Taiwan yesterday to attend a forum on women’s empowerment to be held today.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned the International Cooperation and Development Fund to launch a program in 2021 to assist Taiwan‘s diplomatic allies in Latin America and the Caribbean with post-COVID-19 pandemic economic recovery and to support local women’s empowerment.
The Taiwanese ministry organized the “Empower Women! Empower LAC!” forum, inviting guests from the nation’s allies to share the results of the program.
Photo: CNA
Women have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and frequent earthquakes in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, but now “they are empowered to provide for themselves and their families, and to empower others” thanks to the program, Peters said.
As the first female minister of foreign affairs in her country, it is meaningful to attend the forum, she said, adding that she looked forward to sharing her country’s progress.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) met Peters at the Presidential Office in Taipei, expressing gratitude for her country’s support for Taiwan.
Photo courtesy of the Presidential Office
Tsai said that Taiwan and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines could deepen cooperation on education and culture.
More than 200 students from the country have studied in Taiwan since 2004, she said, adding that the scholarship program’s quota is to be increased starting this year.
Peters thanked Taiwan for the comprehensive support it provided for her nation.
The government of the Caribbean nation highly values education reform, so she is happy that the quota for the scholarships is to increase, she said.
Later yesterday, Peters attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new reading room at the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines embassy in Taipei.
The reading room inside the embassy opened with about 55 books, including novels, poetry and nonfiction works by writers from the Caribbean nation.
“In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, education is a very important cornerstone, particularly in our administration we refer to it as the education revolution. And one of the keys to that revolution is reading,” Peters said.
Those wishing to visit the reading room can contact svgembassy.tw@gmail.com to request an appointment.
Separately, Tsai also met with Briceno — who visited Taiwan with her husband, Belizean Prime Minister John Briceno, in March last year — at the Presidential Office yesterday.
As a supporter of the education of women and children, Rosanna Briceno held entrepreneurial counseling and other training sessions in the past year as part of the empowerment program, Tsai said.
She took on the role of chairwoman for the Spouses of CARICOM Leaders Actions Network last year, integrating forces from all sectors to improve the rights of women and children in the Caribbean, she said.
After the Taiwan-Belize Economic Cooperation Agreement took effect in January last year, exchanges between the two sides have grown closer, she said.
For example, the two nations signed a letter of intent in March last year to import Belizean lobsters, while a Taiwanese business delegation visited Belize in July last year to deepen cooperation on seafood imports and food processing, she added.
Rossana Briceno said that Tsai’s pursuit of democracy, prosperity and human rights is inspiring to Belize, and thanked her for working together to promote women’s rights.
Additional reporting by CNA
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS