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Lu pans diplomat for Costa Rica break

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said yesterday that the nation's former ambassador to Costa Rica, Wu Tzu-dan (吳子丹), should assume the greatest share of responsibility for the severance of diplomatic relations between the two countries last month.

Lu said that Wu was "completely in the dark" about the fact that Costa Rica had secretly signed a joint communique with the People's Republic of China to establish diplomatic ties on June 1.

"Strictly speaking, the legislature was too lazy to look into Wu's responsibility in the affair," Lu told reporters during a flight from the Dominican Republic to Paraguay, the second leg of her three-nation Latin American visit.

Determining whether diplomats have fulfilled their duties and whether they have the skills to deal with foreign affairs are crucial to maintaining Taiwan's foreign relations, Lu said.

Pointing to Wu and his predecessor Mao Kao-wen (毛高文), Lu said that both diplomats were incapable of handling ties with Latin American countries as neither speaks Spanish.

To improve Taiwan's foreign service, Lu proposed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs establish a fair and reasonable system to promote career diplomats and cooperate with local universities to train more Spanish-speaking talent.

Lu outlined two ways to preserve existing diplomatic ties -- providing substantial aid and friendship and promoting the "soft diplomacy" that she has been touting.

She urged lawmakers to make more frequent visits to the nation's diplomatic allies and suggested that the legislature restrict the use of government funding by legislators for foreign trips so that the funds can be spent only on visits to the nation's diplomatic allies.

She said that during a series of conferences held last year on reforming the country's foreign policy, she proposed replacing checkbook diplomacy with "development diplomacy" and using Taiwan's experience in developing science-based industrial parks to help boost its allies' economic development.

Taiwan can also assist its diplomatic allies in building hospitals as an extension of medical aid, while creating greater awareness of Taiwan's willingness to help, she said.

Lu said many Taiwanese expatriates and businessmen in the US had expressed an interest in serving in Latin America after retirement, and the government should make use of such resources to expand the nation's foreign relations.

On the proposal by some Latin American allies for debt reduction, Lu said this was a price that Taiwan must pay to secure its ties with the limited number of diplomatic allies, adding that debt reduction did not mean unconditional and full debt pardon.

Taiwan has 24 diplomatic allies around the world, 12 of which are in Latin America.

Upon her arrival in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, Lu toured a Taiwanese-supported industrial park located in the Paraguayan city before heading to Hospital Los Angeles Paraguay-China to preside over a groundbreaking ceremony for the hospital's second-phase expansion project.

Lu also donated US$20,000 on behalf of the Taiwanese government to sponsor the project.

The hospital was established by an ethnic Chinese charity foundation in Paraguay in cooperation with the Buddha's Light International Association to provide free medical services to local residents.
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