Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) on Wednesday honored French Office in Taipei Director Jean-Francois Casabonne-Masonnave with the Friendship Medal of Diplomacy “in recognition of his efforts to promote cooperation and exchanges between France and Taiwan over the past four years,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news release yesterday.
Casabonne-Masonnave is this week to leave the post he took up in September 2019.
He helped launch the Taipei Representative Office in Aix-en-Provence in 2020 and the Lycee International Francais de Taipei last year to deepen cultural and educational exchanges between the two sides, the ministry said.
The National Human Rights Commission signed an agreement last year with French representatives, including Casabonne-Masonnave, to strengthen bilateral cooperation on human rights, it said.
Wu thanked Casabonne-Masonnave for promoting cooperation, dialogue and exchanges between Taiwan and France in the fields of economics, trade, science and technology, education and culture, it said.
Taiwan and France share the same interest and vision to maintain freedom, peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, Wu said, citing the promulgation of the French Military Programming Law on Tuesday to safeguard freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region.
Casabonne-Masonnave said that France and Taiwan have been advancing their relationship based on shared values of freedom and democracy, adding that he hopes the bilateral relationship could continue moving forward based on existing foundations.
Cybersecurity concerns
In other developments, 31 of Taiwan’s embassies and missions abroad use equipment or services with cybersecurity concerns, a report published by the National Audit Office said.
The office’s 2022 Central Government Final Account Review Report said that 14 embassies and missions used information and communication equipment that posed cybersecurity risks, and 19 of them used telecom services from suspicious companies, while two offices had both issues.
Twenty-two embassies and missions with cybersecurity responsibility level classified as Level-A, the highest one, had not conducted cybersecurity checks from 2019 to last year, and 13 of them had not done it from 2020 to last year, the report said.
These agencies should undergo cybersecurity checks every two to three years, it said.
Some cybersecurity violations were found in recent years, including installing unapproved software, using outdated operating systems and software, connecting business computers to personal devices and lacking anti-virus software, it said.
The ministry said in a news release on Wednesday that it is assessing cybersecurity risks of its embassies and missions.
The ministry prioritizes agencies based on their risk levels as the staff with the necessary expertise cannot handle all of them at once, it said.
It is unavoidable for some agencies to use equipment or services from China, which had all been listed and controlled, it said.
Cybersecurity management in embassies and missions abroad has always been a priority of the ministry, it said, adding that it would continue to improve the protection capabilities to ensure national security and interests.
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