One day after breaking ties with Taiwan to establish relations with China, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias on Thursday accused Taiwan of not offering enough financial aid.
"How can it be that you help the poorest nation in the hemisphere with just US$20 million a year?" Arias said on local Radio Monumental when he recalled conversations at last year's inauguration of Haitian President Rene Preval in which he told Taiwanese officials that they should provide more aid to Haiti.
"You should, if you wanted to help, give them US$200 million a year. That is nothing for you. While the United States gives 0.1 percent of its economic output in foreign aid Taiwan gives not even 0.0001 percent," he recalled telling them at the time.
PHOTO: AP
"I have been critical of Taiwan in the sense that if they have diplomatic relations with fewer than 30 countries, they should be more generous," Arias said.
Although Taiwan has financed some large infrastructure and health projects in Costa Rica in recent years, Arias played down their importance.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman David Wang (
He added that the remarks were unbecoming of a gentleman.
"But President Arias' remarks proved that Taiwan does not engage in `checkbook diplomacy' unlike China," Wang said.
Wang said Arias' words demonstrated that he had dumped Taiwan and established relations with China mainly for financial aid from Beijing.
"I think the international community and all the people will have their opinions about Costa Rica," Wang said.
Meanwhile, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Katharine Chang (張小月) said yesterday that Taiwan would not establish a representative office in Costa Rica at this point.
Chang made the remarks yesterday morning while giving a report to the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus on the MOFA's reaction to Costa Rica's split with Taiwan.
TSU Legislator Kuo Lin-yung (郭林勇) questioned MOFA officials on how they intended to stop more of Taiwan's allies cutting ties and turning to China because of money.
Chang said that MOFA regretted Costa Rica's decision, but would not get involved in a "money race" with China.
"We are not worried about a `domino effect' either. MOFA has a strategy to combat this," Chang said.
She said the 4,000 Taiwanese nationals in Costa Rica would not be affected by the split.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS