Canada opposes the use of coercion or force to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, Canadian Trade Office in Taipei Executive Director Jim Nickel said during a meeting with Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday, adding that Taiwan is considered “an important partner for Canada in the Indo-Pacific region.”
“To strengthen our democratic resilience, Canada wants to deepen our cooperation with Taiwan in areas such as countering disinformation and foreign interference, strengthening cybersecurity and protecting critical infrastructure, including ensuring communications resilience,” Nickel said.
“Canada has now joined the Global Cooperation and Training Framework [GCTF] as a full member with Taiwan, the US, Japan and Australia. Canada sees the GCTF as a valuable platform for exchanging best practices on issues of domestic and transnational importance, and for bringing Taiwan to the world and the world to Taiwan,” he said.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
Taiwan and Canada have transitioned to “a green and digital future,” Nickel said, adding that Canada is proud of its “investment in Taiwan’s offshore wind center and contributing to Taiwan’s net zero goals.”
Taiwan and Canada “share values of freedom and democracy, and support each other in safeguarding regional peace,” Cho said.
Canada has exercised the right to freedom of navigation by dispatching military vessels to sail through the Taiwan Strait multiple times, attesting to the connection of Taiwan to the world in facilitating regional security, Cho added.
With the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement signed last year and a double taxation avoidance pact in 2016, Taiwan and Canada would continue to develop their bilateral relationship and prior collaborations in economy, trade, technology and healthcare, he said.
Taiwan’s offshore wind construction has received significant assistance from Canadian energy companies, and the government is to boost the budget for technological development to NT$146.6 billion (US$4.57 billion) next year to explore more collaborations with Canada, he said.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
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