The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday expressed gratitude and sent best wishes to New Zealand’s newly founded All-Party Parliamentary Group on Taiwan.
Launched by New Zealand lawmakers Simon O’Connor and Ingrid Leary, the group has so far been joined by 22 cross-party lawmakers, the ministry said in a statement.
O’Connor welcomed group members to support Taiwan by boosting economic and trade relations with the country, and helping efforts to maintain security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The group’s formation is “timely,” as this year marks the 10th anniversary of free trade with Taiwan, which is the sixth-biggest trading partner of New Zealand, Leary wrote on Facebook, referring to the Agreement Between New Zealand and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on Economic Cooperation passed by the Legislative Yuan in 2013.
New Zealand and Taiwan “share ancestral whakapapa, democratic values and a common interest in a stable Indo-Pacific region,” she said, using the Maori term for ancestry.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵), who chairs the legislature’s Taiwan-New Zealand Inter-Parliamentary Amity Association, sent their best wishes via prerecorded videos, which were played at the inauguration of the group on Wednesday, the ministry said.
Taiwan and New Zealand jointly helped launch the Indigenous Peoples Economic and Trade Cooperation Arrangement to help indigenous people establish international businesses, Wu said in the video.
He called on the New Zealand parliament to support Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) to deepen exchanges between the two countries.
Deepening the ties between Taiwan and New Zealand is the consensus among lawmakers from the two nations, as evidenced by their legislatures launching parliamentary friendship groups, Lin said.
She invited the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Taiwan to visit the nation to promote economic and trade exchanges, and jointly safeguard the values of freedom, democracy and human rights.
Representative to New Zealand Joanne Ou (歐江安), who spoke at the ceremony, also called on the group to support Taiwan’s bid to join the CPTPP and other international organizations, the ministry said.
“I am convinced that cordial relations between our two countries will reach new heights,” New Zealand news site Stuff quoted Ou as saying.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS