In an interview given to Japan’s **Nikkei Asia** on Monday last week, Paraguayan Foreign Minister Ruben Ramirez Lezcano said the South American nation had no plans to end ties with Taiwan. "We engage with Taiwan because [of] our peace, democracy, freedom, human rights conditions, the rule of law ... principles [which] are very important," he said.
Democracy and freedom are go-to nouns used by officials from both countries to describe the ties that bind the relationship. A statement from Vice President William Lai (賴清德) in August last year after his visit to Paraguay said that Taiwan and Paraguay “are brothers that share the values of freedom, democracy, and respect for human rights.”
Like Taiwan, Paraguay is a relatively young democracy. It transitioned to a constitutional democracy in 1989 with the ousting of then-Paraguayan President Alfredo Sreoessber, ending his 35-year dictatorship. However, international democracy indices have often found fault with elements of the nation’s democracy. The Economist 2023 Democracy Index characterizes Paraguay as a “flawed democracy,” ranking it in 74th place internationally.
In “Status at the Margins: Why Paraguay Recognizes Taiwan and Shuns China” published in **Foreign Policy Analysis,** Tom Long and Francisco Urdinez say that recognizing Taiwan enables Paraguay to enhance its international status, outweighing the material benefits that might be accrued from recognizing China.
“For a small and landlocked country, typically overshadowed by its larger neighbors, opportunities to be recognized as internationally important are scarce,” they write.
However, Long and Urdinez say that it is precisely the configuration of the Paraguayan elite, “relatively small and internally cohesive” in which one party dominates the political landscape and power is concentrated in a small number of hands, is why Paraguayan elites can indulge in this kind of foreign policy “status seeking.”
“Elites are embedded in patrimonial structures and insulated from societal pressures,” they write.
For democracies committed to freedom and the rule of law, international relations is fraught with moral questions. Should a democracy continue to have relations with imperfect states? Despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, no liberal democracy broke off relations with it. The US maintains diplomatic relations with oppressive Saudi Arabia. Democracies do so because to ensure their security and prosperity, they must engage with the world as it is, and assert their presence. Taiwan must engage with the world, as any democracy would. Unless there is a direct line between Taiwan’s support and the survival of a nation’s oppressive regime, there is no problem with who Taiwan has diplomatic relations with.
A profound commitment to freedom and democracy might not be the main driver of Paraguay-Taiwan ties, but “democracy” and “human rights” are important discursive tools that the two nations use to narrativize their partnership and express solidarity. Moreover, this rhetoric might not be entirely cynical. Both share similar experiences as small states in the international system. Both are relatively new democracies emerging out of years of dictatorship. These factors too, inform Paraguay’s foreign policy and foster a sense of solidarity with Taiwan.
Paraguay has been a good partner to Taiwan, offering rhetorical support for the nation’s inclusion at the UN, and reminding the world that Beijing’s “one China” principle is by no means an international consensus. Whatever framing the two use to narrativize their ties, this rhetoric is expressive of a strong convergence and shared national interest in supporting each other.
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