The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday dismissed a US senator’s concern that Paraguay would be the next nation to break diplomatic ties with Taiwan, saying that ties remain strong and solid.
“Relations between the government and its Paraguayan counterpart remain stable. Our bilateral cooperation has been going smoothly, and both sides have seen close educational and cultural exchanges,” ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said.
The ministry appreciated its US friends’ support and concerns, but would continue to consolidate ties with diplomatic allies amid Beijing’s repeated attempts to poach them, which has destabilized the region, Lee said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
US Senator Marco Rubio on Tuesday said at a US Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing that he had heard that Paraguay could be the next Western Hemisphere ally to switch recognition to China, after Panama in June last year and the Dominican Republic last month.
“When they do these things, it is often as leverage to align those countries’ foreign policy to what China’s foreign policy may be,” Rubio said, adding that such efforts oftentimes involved bribery of government officials.
Though not directly responding to the allegations, US Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Alex Wong (黃之瀚) at the Department of State, said that Beijing’s attempts to close off Taiwan’s international space and alter the cross-strait “status quo” are “disturbing” to the US.
Washington has made it clear to its partners and Beijing that “any moves to strip Taiwan of its diplomatic partners disturb that ‘status quo,’” Wong said.
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Maria Liu (劉德立), who spent 10 of his 30-year diplomatic career in Paraguay, yesterday dismissed Rubio’s comments.
At a dinner banquet he hosted during his latest visit to Paraguay earlier this month, he received a personal guarantee of the stability of ties from president-elect Mario Abdo Benitez, whom he has known since Benitez was a senator, Liu said.
“We had a candid conversation. I told Mario that there were a lot of rumors about which countries Beijing was targeting and that Paraguay was one of them. He told me directly that there was nothing to worry about with the ties,” Liu said.
Abdo Benitez also personally wrote a letter to invite President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to his Aug. 15 inauguration, Liu said.
The firmness of the friendship was shown by Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes’ hosting a luncheon at his residence on May 7 to welcome Liu, which Liu said was an unusual treatment for a visiting deputy minister.
Most of the cooperation programs between Taiwan and Paraguay are in the areas of medicine and the construction of affordable housing, he said.
Such cooperation would be expanded with the industrial technology university established by the two nations, which is expected to begin admission process in March next year at the earliest, Liu said.
Taiwan is providing the faculty and equipment for the school.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS