The Taiwanese government has pledged to provide US$5 million in funding for the renovation of a medical building providing post-surgery rehabilitation services in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The government would finance the renovation of a rehabilitation building at the Unbroken National Rehabilitation Center in Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine, the ministry said yesterday in a press release.
Once the renovation is completed, the building would be renamed the “Taiwan Friendship Building,” the release said.
Photo: CNA
To facilitate the aid, representatives from the Taipei Representative Office in Poland, the Lviv City Government and Unbroken virtually signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday, the release said.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中), who was present at the signing ceremony, said the government would continue to collaborate with the Lviv city government and assist in Ukraine’s efforts to forge ahead in times of difficulty.
Meanwhile, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, who is currently in Taiwan for a five-day visit, thanked Taiwan for its generosity and said that the aid would further benefit wounded people in Ukraine.
The latest financial support pledged by Taipei followed the provision in 2022 of US$800,000 in donations to the Multidisciplinary Clinical Hospital of Emergency and Intensive Care in Lviv, which is now part of the Unbroken National Rehabilitation Center.
The donations were part of aid provided by the government in the first half of 2022 to seven Ukrainian hospitals totaling US$5.8 million, the ministry said.
Lviv has become a hub for treating and rehabilitating injured military personnel and civilians since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
More than 16,000 injured Ukrainians, including children, have been treated at Unbroken since then, the center says on its Web site.
Sadovyi and his delegation arrived in Taiwan on Thursday and are scheduled to stay until tomorrow.
On Friday, the group attended a luncheon hosted by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), where the two sides discussed the ongoing war and the prospects of the eastern European nation, as well as opportunities for more exchanges between Ukraine and Taiwan, according to the ministry release.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal