The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said on Monday that relations between Taipei and the Dominican Republic remain firm despite growing financial ties between Taiwan’s Caribbean ally and China, and hints of a possible interest in changing allegiance.
Bank of China and China’s Foreign Trade Bank were reported on Friday to have agreed to extend US$462 million in financing for a tourism complex in the eastern Dominican Republic being developed by Spanish investors.
Dominican Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garcia was quoted as saying that the deal created a precedent that will open the doors for Chinese financing of other development projects, but Taiwan appeared to take the news in its stride.
“There are many foreign investments in the Dominican Republic. Our embassy will closely monitor the situation. However, the Republic of China does not oppose trade relations between the private sectors of our allies and those in China,” MOFA spokesman James Chang (章計平) said.
Taiwan received a jolt earlier this month when Garcia intimated during a visit to Shanghai that his country was hoping for full relations with China “sooner than later.”
“We aspire sooner than later, our relations with the People’s Republic of China are complete relations and absolutes,” he was quoted as saying by online news service Dominican Today on Oct. 5.
Chang said the Taiwanese embassy in Santo Domingo immediately raised concerns with the Dominican Republic government regarding Garcia’s comments, but stressed that Taiwan’s longstanding friendship with the nation remains unshaken.
“The Dominican Republic’s foreign policies are directed by its president,” Chang said.
In July, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) received an official delegation led by Dominican Secretary of Defense Pedro Rafael Pena Antonio and expressed hope for further bilateral agricultural, educational, security and economic cooperation in the future.
On Oct. 11, the MOFA thanked the Dominican Republic as one of 17 allied countries that backed Taiwan’s bid to join the International Civil Aviation Organization as an observer.
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