Panama will not be included on the President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) itinerary for a planned visit to Central America and the Caribbean next month, Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday in response to a report that Panama's leader had decided not to host Chen.
The president plans to visit the nation's diplomatic allies in Central America that he has not yet visited since assuming the presidency in 2000. In view of this, Panama, which Chen has visited three times in the past, will not be included on his tour this time, Yu said in response to questions from reporters in Ilan County.
Chen is to leave for Central America next month to attend the fifth ROC-Central America summit meeting. The meeting, convened in Nicaragua this year, is a regional biennial event Taiwan has attended since 1999.
"It's too early to finalize the whole itinerary, which the Presidential Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are still arranging," Yu said.
On July 21, a local media report said that Panama had reacted coolly to Chen's proposed visit. On July 29, Panama's vice president said in an interview with a Panamanian TV station that it would be inconvenient for his country to accept a visit by Chen because of celebrations being held for the country's president.
But, according to the Central News Agency, Panama's Minister of Foreign Affairs Samuel Lewis Navarro said during an interview with a reporter with Panama's national network Televisora Nacional Panama (TVN), that he was aware of Chen's visit to Panama next month for celebrations related to the first anniversary of Martin Torrijos' inauguration. The reporter told the news agency yesterday that the foreign minister did not mention anything about any "inconvenience."
Reports also said that Panama's hesitation had forced staffers at the Presidential Office to alter plans to arrive in Central America before Chen.
According to the report, Vice President Samuel Lewis Navarro told TVN that the decision to not host Chen was made based on Panama's internal considerations and was not related to the two governments' bilateral relations, which Navarro indicated would remain unaffected.
In addition to Panama, the same media report on July 21 said that the Dominican Republic, another diplomatic ally in the region, also had responded half-heartedly to Chen's proposed visit. This was dismissed by government officials here, who claimed that the list of countries to be included in Chen's itinerary had yet to be confirmed.
Chen once said he hoped to visit all the nation's allies during his presidency.
There are only three allies in the region that he has not yet visited: St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Haiti.
While a local Chinese-language newspaper reported that these three nations had been confirmed as stops on Chen's tour, Yu said the itinerary was not finalized
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