Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and Vice President William Lai will donate a month’s salary to the earthquake relief effort in Turkey, their office said on Thursday.
Cai and Lai, who are widely expected to run for president in next year’s elections, “hope to do their part to help Turkey rebuild its homeland as soon as possible,” the presidential office said in a statement.
Turkey, like most countries, does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which is claimed by China, but they do have de facto embassies in each other’s capitals, and there are direct flights between Istanbul and Taipei.
On Thursday, Tsai visited the de facto Turkish Embassy in Taipei to sign a book of condolences, writing, “My heart goes out to our Turkish friends. Taiwan supports Turkey!” her office said in a statement.
Last year, Tsai and Lai also donated a month’s salary to humanitarian aid to war-torn Ukraine. Tsai earns about NT$400,000 ($13,300) a month.
The death toll from the earthquake and aftershocks earlier this week topped 16,000 on Thursday, with rescue teams slow to arrive in some areas due to difficult conditions.
Taiwan, itself often hit by earthquakes, has already committed $2 million in disaster relief and sent two rescue teams to Turkey to help search for survivors.
Tsai spoke via video link with some of the Taiwanese team on Wednesday.
“I would like to thank all the participants for not being afraid of difficulties and doing their best so that Taiwan and Turkey can help each other,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
Turkey joined the international effort and sent rescuers to Taiwan in 1999 after a massive earthquake killed more than 2,000 people.
