Taiwan’s state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp and its Chinese counterpart signed a landmark pact to jointly explore for oil in one of the boldest moves to tear down obstacles to bilateral trade and investment. CPC and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) plan to invest a total of $25 million over four years to hunt for oil, sidestepping a political stalemate between Taipei and Beijing, rivals since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949. The agreement also paves the way for both state firms to jointly develop the Chaoshan block in the open seas about 140km from Taiwan’s southern port city Kaohsiung. “As far as I know it’s the first large-scale cooperation between two state-owned enterprises across the Strait,” said CNOOC President Wei Liucheng after the signing. The agreement was the second major commercial deal involving state-controlled companies after China Eastern Airlines signed a pact last year to sell a 25 per cent stake in its cargo unit to Taiwan’s China Airlines, in which a government-run fund has a controlling stake.
Other important events:
1817 The Mississippi River steamboat service begins.
1862 Frenchman Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir builds the first gas-fuelled internal combustion engine.
1868 The US Senate fails to impeach President Andrew Johnson by a single vote.
1881 The world’s first electric tram enters service in Lichterfelder.
1929 The first Academy Awards are presented during a banquet at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
1932 Japanese Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai is assassinated in Tokyo
1941 The Icelandic parliament ends a treaty with Denmark, proclaims independence.
1961 Major-General Park Chung-hee stages a military coup in South Korea.
1975 Japan’s Junko Tabei becomes first woman to climb Mount Everest.
1977 Muhammad Ali beats Alfredo Evangelist in 15 for heavyweight boxing title.
1980 Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira calls a snap general election after his government collapses in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence
1989 Lebanese Grand Mufti Shaikh Hassan Khalid is killed in a car bomb blast.
1991 Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to address the US Congress.
1992 A special governing panel fires Azerbaijani President Ayaz Mutalibov, a former communist.
1996 Atal Bihari Vajpayee is sworn in as the new Indian prime minister.
1997 Zaire’s ailing president, Mobutu Sese Seko steps down ending over three decades of highly personalised rule.
1999 Iranian President Mohammad Khatami makes a historic visit to Saudi Arabia.
2003 Twenty-nine people are killed and about 100 injured in five nearly simultaneous suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco.
2005 Kuwaiti women are granted the right to vote and contest elections.
2009 Kuwait elects four women members of parliament for the first time in the nation’s history.
2011 The RAK Maritime City is launched in Ras Al Khaimah.
2013 Indian actor Sanjay Dutt surrenders before a court in Mumbai after being sentenced to five years in prison.
2014 The Narendra Modi-led BJP single-handedly wins a majority in the national elections in India.
2015 An Egypt court sentences ex-President Mohammad Mursi to death over allegations he escaped prison in 2011.
2016 The UAE and Saudi Arabia set up a joint council to coordinate efforts and bolster ties between the two countries.
