France has offered Taiwan military equipment maintenance services, but it cannot reveal details, French Senator Alain Richard said in Taipei yesterday.
A delegation led by the senior senator, who is also a former defense minister, arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday and is scheduled to leave tomorrow night. Other delegation members include French senators Max Brisson, Else Joseph and Olivier Cadic.
The delegation on Wednesday visited the Hsinchu Air Base to see French-made Mirage 2000 jets stationed there, before meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Thursday, a source familiar with the matter told the Taipei Times.
Photo: Reuters
Richard and other delegation members did not comment on the air base visit when asked about it, nor did the air force.
The Ministry of National Defense last month said it signed a technical support agreement with Mirage jet manufacturer Dassault Aviation. The NT$796.9 million (US$28.41 million) deal, which is to last until Sept. 13, 2026, would aid the air force’s operation of Mirage 2000-5 fighters, local media reported.
France has offered maintenance services for aviation and navigation equipment purchased from the country over the past two years, but it cannot yet share the details, Richard said.
Although China often casts itself as a stabilizing force, its increased activity near Taiwan has alarmed many countries and underscored the importance of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
Asked if he fears retaliation from Beijing for visiting Taiwan, Richard said the trip does not contradict French diplomatic policy or relations with China.
He said that Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye (盧沙野) in February wrote a letter asking him to cancel the trip, warning that it might have a negative impact on France-China relations.
He said he told Lu that the visit was not counter to French foreign policy.
The delegation was not “pressured” by Beijing, as some media have claimed; it just has different views from China, he said.
Richard also said that Taiwan signing a bilateral investment agreement with the EU was possible.
The delegation was invited to the opening of the Shawan History and Culture Park (沙灣歷史文化園區) in Keelung today.
The park contains some heritage from the Sino-French War in 1884, during which Keelung was a battlefield, the Keelung City Government said.
Days after it was banned in China, a Mandarin ballad satirizing nationalistic Chinese Internet users is trending at No. 1 on YouTube in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Fragile (玻璃心), by Taiwan-based Malaysian rapper Namewee (黃明志) and Australian singer Kimberley Chen (陳芳語), offers a tongue-in-cheek apology to “little pink” Internet users, a disparaging term that describes patriotic “keyboard warriors” from China. After racking up more than 9 million views on YouTube, the song reached No. 3 on the site in Malaysia on Thursday, according to Kworb, a Web site that analyzes music data from around the world. It is also the only Chinese-language
NO CHANGE: US officials indicated that the ‘one China’ policy remains in place, while the NATO chief avoided discussing Biden’s comment in an effort to ease tensions US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Friday that the Pentagon would continue to support Taiwan’s military, but he declined to say if US troops would defend the island against China, after US President Joe Biden said there was a US “commitment” to do so. “As we’ve done over multiple administrations, we will continue to help Taiwan with the sorts of capabilities that it needs to defend itself,” Austin said at NATO headquarters. “So we’ll stay focused on those things, and I won’t engage in any hypotheticals with respect to Taiwan,” he told reporters. Biden on Thursday sparked a new firestorm
PROTECTION: The Ministry of Health and Welfare is aiming for a full vaccination rate of 30 percent, and allowing mixed first and second doses to boost coverage rates Whether Taiwan reopens its borders would depend on the nation’s vaccination coverage rate and the COVID-19 situation in other countries, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The Ministry of Health and Welfare is aiming for a 70 percent first-dose vaccination coverage and 30 percent two-dose coverage as part of its consideration, Shih told a media briefing following the weekly Cabinet meeting. In spite of a relatively stable COVID-19 situation in Taiwan, and calls from foreign missions and businesses in the country to allow more international travelers, the government is maintaining strict border control measures. Since March last year,
The nationwide level 2 COVID-19 alert, which is set to expire on Monday next week, is to be extended, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday. Chen, who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), told reporters before heading to a meeting at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei that the COVID-19 alert level “will not be lowered on November 2,” but he did not say how long the extension would be. Taiwan has been under level 2 alert, the third-highest on the nation’s four-tier scale, since July 27. The CECC yesterday reported eight new COVID-19 infections — six imported
RSS