The government is making last-ditch efforts to salvage diplomatic relations with Malawi, as two senior Malawian Cabinet members are set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China today that will pave the way for the country to establish diplomatic ties with Beijing, government officials said yesterday.
"We have been aware of the situation in recent days, but Malawi denied it when we inquired with its government," Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (
MOFA Deputy Minister Yang Tzu-pao (楊子葆) and director of the ministry's African Affairs Department, Chang Yun-ping (張雲屏), were sent to Malawi a couple of days ago to communicate with the Malawian government over the matter, Yeh said.
"Although Malawi didn't tell us its intentions, we knew that China had spent an astronomical amount of money to force Malawi to sever its diplomatic ties with Taiwan," Yeh said.
China has promised a huge sum of money to help Malawi develop its natural resources and build its public infrastructure, a MOFA official said on condition of anonymity.
A story published on Friday by the Nyasa Times, a newspaper in Malawi, said that two of Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika's senior Cabinet ministers -- Minister of Presidential and Parliamentary Affairs Davis Katsonga and Minister of Energy and Mining Henry Chimunthu Banda -- were to leave Malawi today and travel to Beijing via Bangkok accompanied by two senior officials from the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The paper said they are expected to sign a MOU paving the way for the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the two countries.
"Malawi is terminating diplomatic relations with the Republic of China [Taiwan]. The government feels it's high time that Malawi recognizes the one-China policy. After all, they are already in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique, which border us," the paper quoted the Cabinet source as saying.
The paper said the Cabinet source revealed that Mutharika has sanctioned severing diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favor of the People's Republic of China, which has established a strong foothold in other southern African countries.
Mutharika, however, declared recently that the country would not abandon Taiwan for China.
"We have received much assistance from Taiwan and we will maintain diplomatic relations [with] Taiwan," Mutharika was on record as saying, the Nyasa Times said.
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