The presidential office has announced that in addition to the aid already provided by the island, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and Vice President William Lai will each donate one month’s salary for the relief efforts following the earthquake in Turkey.
The presidential office said in a statement that Tsai and Lai, who are widely anticipated to run for president in the elections scheduled for next year, “hope to do their part to help Turkey rebuild its homeland as soon as possible.”
Turkey, like the majority of nations, does not maintain formal diplomatic ties with Chinese-occupied Taiwan, but there are direct flights from Istanbul to Taipei, and the two nations do maintain de facto embassies in each other’s capitals.
“My heart goes with our people in Turkey,” Tsai wrote in a book of condolences when she went to the de facto Turkish embassy in Taipei.