Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/17
By: Tang Pei-chun and S.C. Chang
Taipei, March 17 (CNA) Taiwan and the Philippines have agreed to set up a hotline on fishing disputes and cooperate in cracking down on illegal fishing in their overlapping exclusive economic zones, officials said late Thursday.
The Republic of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) officials said those were consensuses reached at the second Technical Working Group meeting on fishery cooperation held in Taipei March 15.
The meeting was jointly chaired by Taiwan’s representative to the Philippines, Lin Sung-huan, and the Philippines’ representative to Taiwan, Antonio Basilio.
The hotline is aimed at informing each other at the earliest possible time of a fishing accident in the overlapping waters, to prevent misjudgments that might affect fishermen’s rights and relations between the two countries, according to a MOFA statement. [FULL STORY]