The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed 105 undergraduate students from 12 countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Asia-Pacific region as they began a five-month fellowship program.
At a ceremony in Taipei, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the students selected for this year’s New Southbound Policy Elite Study Program are to spend the next five months taking courses related to their majors at five universities.
At the same time, the fellowship recipients would “acquire a better understanding of Taiwan’s respect for liberty, vibrant civil society and democratic way of life” by taking part in Chinese-language classes and an array of cultural activities, Lin said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“I am confident talent exchanges between the young people of Taiwan and New Southbound Policy partner countries will grow stronger in the near future,” he said.
The 105 students are from Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
A total of 1,017 students from New Southbound Policy nations have come to Taiwan to study medicine and biomedicine, semiconductors, agricultural technology and cross-strait relations since the program was initiated in 2022, Lin said.
The fellowship program “demonstrates Taiwan’s willingness to address issues of concerns” to Southeast Asian nations and is “in line with the UN’s sustainable development goals,” he added.
The fellowship program is among the initiatives under the New Southbound Policy, which was launched in 2017 under former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to expand the nation’s economic, educational and cultural links with Southeast Asian and Asia-Pacific nations.
Yesterday’s event was also attended by representatives from several foreign missions in Taiwan, namely Vietnam, Thailand, India, Indonesia, New Zealand and Malaysia, MOFA said.
The universities in partnership with MOFA in this year’s program are National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, National Chung Hsing University, Taipei Medical University, National Taipei University of Technology and National Quemoy University.
The fellowship program covers tuition fees, a round-trip plane ticket, free accommodations and a monthly stipend of NT$8,000 per student.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi