The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday congratulated David Adeang after the Nauruan Parliament elected him president of Taiwan’s Pacific ally, following a no-confidence vote that ousted former president Russ Joseph Kun on Wednesday last week.
Adeang, the longest-serving member of Nauru’s parliament, yesterday secured 10 votes in the 19-member parliament, becoming president, while Delvin Thoma received eight, the ministry said in a news release.
Adeang was speaker of the parliament in 2004 and 2008, and held a number of Cabinet-level positions, including minister assisting the president as well as minister of finance and minister of justice.
Photo: Taipei Times
Adeang has visited Taiwan several times and also accompanied former Nauruan president Ludwig Scotty on a visit to Taipei in 2005, when Scotty signed an agreement to re-establish diplomatic relations between the countries, the ministry said.
The ministry said it would continue to work closely with Adeang’s administration and enhance bilateral cooperation on various fronts, based on their decades of cooperation.
The Nauruan government yesterday wrote on Facebook that the vote for a new president was deadlocked from Wednesday last week until yesterday morning, when Kun said that the impasse had gone on long enough and nominated Adeang in a second round of nominations, giving Adeang an extra vote.
The post did not say why a vote of no confidence was initiated against Kun, who became president in September last year.
Kun led a delegation to Taiwan from Oct. 8 to Oct. 12, during which he attended Double Ten National Day celebrations.
He also spoke at the Yushan Forum in Taipei on Oct. 11.
The Republic of China first established diplomatic relations with Nauru in 1980 before the Pacific island cut ties with Taipei to recognize the People’s Republic of China in July 2002.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash