Taiwan’s representative to the United States has thanked a senior Japanese official for Japan’s recent donation of more than a million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan. Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan’s representative to the United States, met with Japan’s US ambassador Koji Tomita at an event on Sunday.
On Friday, a plane from Japan carrying 1.24 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine landed in Taiwan. The delivery more than doubled Taiwan’s total stockpile of vaccine doses at a time when the country faces its worst outbreak of the virus.
Representative Hsiao spoke with Ambassador Tomita at a traditional lantern lighting ceremony in Washington DC. Hsiao thanked Tomita for helping Taiwan in its hour of need. She says Taiwan and Japan share common values of democracy and freedom, and the recent gesture by the Japanese government reaffirms the two countries’ effective partnership.
Ambassador Tomita says he hopes Taiwan and Japan emerge from the global pandemic stronger than before.