Paraguayan president-elect Santiago Pena is to visit Taiwan from tomorrow until Saturday, during which time the two allies are to celebrate the 66th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced yesterday.
The Paraguayan delegation would also include a number of the incoming government’s senior officials, including foreign minister-designate Ruben Ramirez Lezcano, incoming presidential chief secretary Lea Gimenez Duarte, finance minister-designate Carlos Fernandez Valdovinos and incoming industry and commerce minister Francisco Javier Gimenez Garcia de Zuniga, MOFA said in a news release.
During his five-day visit, Pena is to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Vice President William Lai (賴清德), Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) and Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元), MOFA said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The delegates would visit National Taiwan University of Science and Technology and Taipei-based non-governmental organization World Vision Taiwan, as well as attend forums with local business representatives, it said.
Pena wrote on Twitter that he would visit Abu Dhabi, then travel to Taiwan to meet Tsai, who he described as a “great friend.”
“We are going to develop an intense international agenda in the coming days carrying the message that Paraguay and its people are up for great things,” he wrote.
Pena pledged during his election campaign to maintain Paraguay’s six decades of diplomatic relations with Taiwan, despite pressure from the local agricultural sector, which wants access to China’s soybean and beef markets.
Pena’s trip, ahead of his inauguration on Aug. 15, coincides with the 66th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations on July 12, 1957, making the visit even more meaningful, MOFA said.
Pena, a 44-year-old economist and former finance minister, won 43 percent of the votes in Paraguay’s April 30 presidential race, defeating center-left rival Efrain Alegre, who had campaigned on a pledge to cut diplomatic relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing.
Pena’s victory eased fears that Taiwan would lose another ally.
The number of allies that maintain formal relations with Taiwan has dwindled to 13 in recent years, and Paraguay is the only country in South America to maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
MOFA said that it plans to send representatives to attend Pena’s inauguration.
Diplomatic sources have told Reuters that Lai might attend as Taiwan’s representative, likely transiting through the US to meet US officials.
Additional reporting by Reuters
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS