• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Taiwan, U.S. vice presidents briefly interact in Honduras

ROC Central News Agency

01/28/2022 08:55 AM

Tegucigalpa, Jan. 27 (CNA) Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) exchanged brief greetings with his American counterpart Kamala Harris at the inauguration ceremony of Honduran President Xiomara Castro Thursday, making it the first time the vice presidents have interacted publicly.

Both Lai and Harris traveled to Honduras to attend Castro's inauguration.

As the last government envoy introduced into a packed sports stadium where the ceremony was held, Harris greeted all the government leaders one after another, including Lai, who was sitting in the front row near Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada and Spanish King Felipe VI.

Lai and Harris exchanged greetings for a moment, marking the first time that the two vice presidents have interacted at a public event after they took office in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

While the possibility of Lai meeting with Harris had been speculated on by Taiwan's press, a senior U.S. government official said Wednesday there were no plans for Harris and Lai to meet while they were both in Honduras.

The official said that Harris had only scheduled bilateral talks with Castro to take place after the inauguration.

Lai is leading a delegation to the Central American nation to attend Castro's inauguration and meet with officials from the new Honduran government.

Lai held talks with Castro Thursday in a meeting that lasted about seven minutes, during which Lai told Honduras' first female president that he looked forward to seeing the two countries work to strengthen bilateral cooperation.

The brief talks took place at short notice after a meeting between the two scheduled earlier the same day had been cancelled by Castro's team due to reasons currently unknown.

Lai will wrap up his visit in Honduras Thursday after holding a press event with the Taiwanese press corps, and he will transit in San Francisco on his return trip to Taiwan.

(By Wen Kuei-hsiang and Teng Pei-ju)

Enditem/yfl