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INTERVIEW: First Nicaraguan student returns as ambassador

Sipping coffee while sitting in a leather chair behind an oversized desk, new Nicaraguan Ambassador William Tapia recalled the nerve-wracking feeling of arriving in Taiwan at the age of 17 to find no one had met him at the airport.

"When I came to Taiwan 44 years ago, I had only five dollars in my pocket," he said, recalling his adventures as the first Nicaraguan student to study in Taiwan.

"One day, I read in the newspaper that the Republic of China government was offering scholarships to Nicaraguan students. I went home and told my female cousin that I was going to study in Free China and she said I was being crazy. Six months later, I arrived in Taiwan," he recalled.

The ROC government scholarship, he said, "was the jackpot of my life."

LONELY ARRIVAL

He recalled that the travel agent had made a mistake on his flight plans, meaning that there was no one at Songshan Airport to meet him upon his arrival.

Luckily, the ambassador said, a kind stranger drove him to a hotel, where the future diplomat spent his first night for one dollar.

That man was an angel, Tapia said.

The next day, the 17-year-old Tapia walked to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and enrolled at National Taiwan University, where he eventually obtained a degree in history.

FOR THE BETTER

"I am so proud of Taiwan. The country has made so many wonderful improvements in the last 44 years," he said in Chinese with a tinge of Beijing accent.

On last weekend's excursion to Tamsui (淡水) in Taipei County, Tapia said he was surprised and impressed to see the cleanliness of the town.

"After people were done eating their food, they threw the trash in the garbage cans. It was not like that in the past," he said.

However, one thing that has remained unchanged about Taiwan is the warmth and hospitality of the people, Tapia said.

During his four-year post, he said he hopes to catch up with old friends he first met all those years ago.

Tapia, who speaks Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, English, French and Italian, served in Nicaragua's embassy in Japan for the last 22 years and began his term as ambassador to Taiwan three weeks ago.

DIPLOMATIC TIES

The ambassador vehemently denied rumors of shaky relations between the two countries, saying his post in Taiwan proved the firmness of Taiwan-Nicaragua ties.

Media rumors have suggested that Nicaragua, along with Paraguay, Panama and Guatemala, is about to break ties with Taiwan after Costa Rica ended its 60 years of diplomatic relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing last June.

"If my country wanted to break relations with Taiwan, they would have just left the post vacant. But instead, they sent me here," he said.

Beijing has been pressuring Managua to switch recognition to China, he said, but Nicaragua strongly adheres to the stance that it welcomes an alliance with Beijing under the condition that it also maintains ties with Taiwan.

"Nicaragua will never accept [leaving] Taiwan as a condition to establish ties with China," he said.

Some business groups, however, accuse the government of stifling the country's economic growth by rejecting Beijing's advances.

"These businessmen think they will receive a lot of commerce by going with China. How? China will just flood the market with their cheap goods. What can we sell to China in the meantime?" he said, adding that he believed Costa Rica should have weighed the decision more carefully before making the switch.

PEAS IN A POD

Tapia said the Sandinista government cherishes its friendship with Taiwan because "we are in the same boat."

Both governments, he said, put the welfare of the people as the top priority.

Tapia said he hoped to encourage more Taiwanese businessmen to invest in Nicaragua in areas such as natural energy, agriculture and tourism.

A free-trade agreement between Taiwan and Nicaragua took effect last month.

A group of Taiwanese coffee importers visited Nicaragua two weeks ago saying they hoped the new import tax exemption policy would generate more commercial opportunities for both sides.

The group also met the head of the Nicaraguan Association of Special Coffees to learn about the Nicaraguan coffee industry.
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