Presently on a three day goodwill visit to Belize is the Taiwan’s
Midshipman Training and Cruising Squadron. It consists of eight hundred officers
and sailors and three warships. Prior to its arrival to the country, the squadron
made similar port calls to its other allies in Central America, and they are
Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
And on this first day of their visit to Belize, a welcome ceremony
was held at the Memorial Park. According to the Minister of National Security
Carlos Perdomo and the Taiwanese Ambassador to Belize His Excellency Ting Joseph
Shih the visit is part of the regional cooperation to enhance the relationship
between Belize and Taiwan. This is the squadron’s second visit to Belize
since diplomatic ties were established in 1989.
His Excellency Ting Joseph Shih, Taiwan Ambassador to Belize
“Over the years, as you know, Taiwan has been committed to actively
promote the mutually beneficial relationship between Belize and Taiwan. In the
past years in addition to providing emergency humanitarian aid to assist the
relief efforts after hurricane Dean last August, we have made significant strides
in the fields of education, scholarships, health, vocational training, information
communication, and technology, and agro-economy.
In order to establish a comprehensive partnership, this year both countries
have achieved milestones by holding important elections which contributed to
the deepening of a democracy and peace in the region; common values also shared
by both of our two countries.
There are some similarities between the two new governments. Both place
a common emphasis on the necessity of good governance, transparency, efficiency,
and development. In addition both new governments are committed to deepen the
cooperation relationship between our two countries.”
Hon. Carlos Perdomo, Minister of National Security
“The friendly relation between our countries have grown closer over
the years through mutual respect and goodwill. Our cooperation encompasses projects
in education vocational training, health, security cooperation, e-commerce and
e-government, and agro-industry. Our security cooperation has allowed members
of the BDF to attend courses at prestigious military institutions in Taiwan
and currently there are two officer cadets in Taiwan undergoing medical training
to become general practitioners. And we are looking forward to inviting some
of our pilots to train in Taiwan in the near future.”
Admiral Cedric Borland, Commandant- Belize Coast Guard
“Of course this is a window of 
opportunity for the Coast Guard and
we are looking forward really to discuss training and equipment benefits that
we can get from the Taiwanese Navy. We started some discussions earlier this
morning and I hope we continue those discussions with the Ambassador to see
what support the Belize Coast Guard can receive from Taiwan.
There are many Coast Guards around the world that have started off and
have not seen the progress that we have seen. But I must say that we have been
professionally trained, most of our men have trained with the United States
Coast Guard. We also have received some very good equipment from the Americans
and that is one of the areas I want to pursue with the Taiwanese, to see what
equipment we can receive from them. We know that there information, communication,
and technology is well advanced and those are the areas we are looking at.”
And while the diplomacy is an important aspect of the visit, the real
fun came in the demonstrations of kickboxing prowess. And we’ll have a
capsule of that later on in the news.
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