Some COVID-19 vaccine suppliers have asked Paraguay to break ties with Taiwan as a precondition for purchasing Chinese vaccines, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, condemning the use of vaccines as a political tool.
The South American country, with a population of about 7 million, had reported 192,599 cases of COVID-19 as of Monday, including 3,695 deaths, WHO data showed.
Purchasing vaccines is not only a health matter, but also a humanitarian issue, especially when Paraguay’s capital, Asuncion, is facing a life-or-death crisis, Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Director-General Alexander Yui (俞大㵢) told a news briefing in Taipei.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuan, Taipei Times
The government is helping Paraguay purchase vaccines through different channels, and it is opposed to any other party offering vaccines to its ally with conditions, he said.
Taiwan did not “transfer” 2 million vaccine doses to Paraguay that it plans to purchase from AstraZeneca, as some media reports have alleged, Yui said.
Rather, Taiwan has agreed that Paraguay can use its funding for existing bilateral cooperation programs to buy vaccines, he said.
Yui also cited a statement by the Paraguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs that referred to it being pressured to sever ties with Taipei.
The Paraguayan government is open to commercial negotiations for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines with all possible states and actors worldwide, as long as the vaccines are produced in a serious and responsible environment with sufficient guarantees, the Paraguayan ministry said on Monday.
Some COVID-19 vaccine suppliers, whose legitimacy or link with the Chinese government has not been proven, have suggested breaking relations with Taiwan as a requirement for the purchase of vaccines from China, it said.
This improper setting of preconditions does not have any justification, considering that commercial exchanges between Paraguay and China are normal and fluid, particularly if the high quantity and value of imports from China are taken into account, despite the lack of diplomatic ties, it said.
The pandemic should not be used to pursue political or economic gain, it added.
The Paraguayan ministry also said that India and Qatar had promised to donate 200,000 doses of the Covaxin vaccine and 400,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine to the country respectively.
Taiwan maintains ties with 15 diplomatic allies, with Paraguay the only one in South America.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS