Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui (俞大?) congratulated Paraguayan president-elect Santiago Pena and invited him to visit Taiwan during a meeting in Asuncion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Yui, on behalf of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), congratulated Pena and running mate Pedro Alliana for their victory in Paraguay’s April 30 presidential election and invited Pena to visit Taiwan to discuss ongoing and future cooperation projects to bolster diplomatic relations, the ministry added.
In a social media post after the meeting, Pena said he and Yui talked about the history of friendship and cooperation between Taipei and Asuncion, as well as the “great projects that we are going to promote to generate development in Paraguay.”
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Earlier on Wednesday, Yui met with outgoing Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez to thank him for supporting Taiwan and advocating for its international participation during his five-year term in office, the ministry said.
Yui’s visit to Paraguay comes on the heels of Pena’s comfortable win over center-left rival Efrain Alegre, who had campaigned on a pledge to switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing.
The victory for Pena, who vowed to maintain ties with Taipei, eased fears that Taiwan would lose another diplomatic ally.
The number of UN member states maintaining formal relations with Taiwan has fallen to 13 as Beijing intensifies efforts to poach the country’s allies.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) previously said his ministry would soon invite Pena to visit Taiwan some time before his inauguration on Aug. 15.
The ministry also said it plans to send representatives to attend Pena’s inauguration.
However, Wu would not disclose if Tsai or Vice President William Lai (賴清德) would lead the delegation.
Paraguay, the only country in South America to maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan, established official relations with the nation in 1957.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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