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Azerbaijan Opens Tourism Office in Israel

Israeli Foreign Minister Ashkenazi. (AP)
Israeli Foreign Minister Ashkenazi. (AP)
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Azerbaijan Opens Tourism Office in Israel

Israeli Foreign Minister Ashkenazi. (AP)
Israeli Foreign Minister Ashkenazi. (AP)

Israeli Foreign Minister Ashkenazi said Azerbaijan’s decision to open a tourism promotion and a trade office in Israel is a boost to strategic alliance ties between the two countries.

It is also a step towards adding Azerbaijan to the Abraham Accords that already includes the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, he stated.

“Azerbaijan is an ally, friend, and largest supplier of Israel’s energy resources. We will continue to work on the development of strategic ties with Azerbaijan and expand them in new areas,” Ashkenazi noted.

The Israel-Azerbaijan Joint Committee met virtually on Wednesday for talks on the promotion of bilateral relations and trade between the two countries. The committee had held its first meeting in 2018.

Earlier, Ashkenazi and Azerbaijan's Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov discussed “regional developments in the Middle East, and possible collaborations between the countries.”

The parties also exchanged views over the possibility of Azerbaijan’s recognition of the Israeli certificate of vaccination against coronavirus and the resumption of travel for Israeli tourists to Azerbaijan.

It was decided to advance a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in the health field, to establish an inter-ministerial working group in the field of agriculture, and an MoU for cooperation in the field of water and desalination.

In recent years, Azerbaijan has become an important tourist destination for Israelis with approximately 50,000 visiting per year, and the countries are currently in the advanced stages of preparation towards signing tourism and aviation agreements.

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Taiwan President Will Visit Allies in South Pacific as Rival China Seeks Inroads

FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
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Taiwan President Will Visit Allies in South Pacific as Rival China Seeks Inroads

FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te will visit the self-governing island’s allies in the South Pacific, where rival China has been seeking diplomatic inroads.
The Foreign Ministry announced Friday that Lai would travel from Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau.
The trip comes against the background of Chinese loans, grants and security cooperation treaties with Pacific island nations that have aroused major concern in the US, New Zealand, Australia and others over Beijing's moves to assert military, political and economic control over the region.
Taiwan’s government has yet to confirm whether Lai will make a stop in Hawaii, although such visits are routine and unconfirmed Taiwanese media reports say he will stay for more than one day.
Under pressure from China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and threatens to annex it by force if needed, Taiwan has just 12 formal diplomatic allies. However, it retains strong contacts with dozens of other nations, including the US, its main source of diplomatic and military support.
China has sought to whittle away traditional alliances in the South Pacific, signing a security agreement with the Solomon Islands shortly after it broke ties with Taiwan and winning over Nauru just weeks after Lai's election in January. Since then, China has been pouring money into infrastructure projects in its South Pacific allies, as it has around the world, in exchange for political support.
China objects strongly to such US stopovers by Taiwan's leaders, as well as visits to the island by leading American politicians, terming them as violations of US commitments not to afford diplomatic status to Taiwan after Washington switched formal recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
With the number of its diplomatic partners declining under Chinese pressure, Taiwan has redoubled efforts to take part in international forums, even from the sidelines. It has also fought to retain what diplomatic status it holds, including refusing a demand from South Africa last month that it move its representative office in its former diplomatic ally out of the capital.