The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely following developments in Tuvalu after the election of a new prime minister, Kausea Natano, sparking concern that Taiwan might face another diplomatic crisis.
Tuvalu is one of the nation’s 16 remaining allies after the Solomon Islands switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing on Monday, ending 36 years of official ties.
Natano yesterday received 10 of 16 votes from the Tuvaluan parliament to replace Enele Sopoaga.
Photo: Chou Hsiang-yun, Taipei Times
The power change in Tuvalu “could give Beijing an opportunity to further isolate Taiwan,” a Reuters report said yesterday, citing analysts in the region.
The surprise change has lengthened the shadow over Taiwan’s standing in the South Pacific, the report said.
However, Ambassador to Tuvalu Marc Su (蘇仁崇) expressed confidence in Tuvalu, saying that Beijing had little influence in the Pacific nation after an unsuccessful attempt to court it just over a decade ago.
Photocopied by Peng Wan-hsin, Taipei Times
“You can feel they are trying to attract our diplomatic allies in every possible way,” Su told Reuters.
“This country is OK — there won’t be any effect,” Su said, adding that Taiwan had good relationships in Tuvalu from “grassroots to top level.”
Taiwan is to contribute US$7.06 million to Tuvalu’s budget for this year, according to budget documents, the report said.
Diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Tuvalu are stable, and Natano has maintained “close contact” with the Republic of China embassy, the ministry said.
Since the Solomon Islands’ diplomatic switch, several US officials have also expressed their support for Taiwan.
“We have repeatedly expressed our concern over China’s actions to bully Taiwan through economic coercion, squeezing Taiwan’s international space, and poaching diplomatic partners,” US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell told a US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing on Wednesday.
“These actions undermine the cross-strait status quo, which has created peace and benefited both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait for decades,” he said.
Committee Chairman James Risch, ranking member Bob Menendez and other committee members also expressed their support at the hearing.
The ministry yesterday thanked the US lawmakers, saying Taiwan would continue to be a responsible member of the international community.
In other developments, US President Donald Trump announced his appointment of US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Robert O’Brien as his new national security advisor.
“I have worked long & hard with Robert,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
“He will do a great job!” Trump added.
O’Brien visited Taiwan in May 2016 and his position is “very friendly” toward Taiwan, the ministry said.
Taiwan and the US have maintained “close and smooth communication,” and continue to deepen their cooperation in the areas of politics, economy and security, it said.
The ministry hopes to, on the basis of the current “friendly and stable” Taiwan-US relations, to continue to work with the US to strengthen their partnership, it added.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift