Taiwan yesterday reminded its diplomatic ally Honduras of Beijing’s record of broken promises, after the Latin American nation’s main opposition party pledged to switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing.
The left-wing Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), led by ousted former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, on Sunday said that if it wins November’s presidential election it would seek to establish diplomatic relations with China and “readjust” the country’s debt.
The party is for a second time fielding Zelaya’s wife, Xiomara Castro, who set out her plans at a news conference in Tegucigalpa.
Photo: Reuters
“I will order an international audit on the internal and external debt, and the readjustment of it,” said Castro, 61, without elaborating on what steps that would entail.
Honduras currently has diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but if victorious, Castro said she would “immediately open diplomatic and commercial relations with mainland China.”
Honduras is among only 15 UN member countries that maintain formal relations with Taiwan.
“Honduras must understand that the Chinese government’s promises have always been all flash and no substance,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said, adding that Beijing would try any “ploys to sabotage Taiwan’s diplomatic relations with our allies.”
The government was aware of the agenda outlined by LIBRE candidate Castro and would pay close attention to any developments, she added.
Taiwan and Honduras have enjoyed diplomatic relations for 80 years, during which they have cooperated on many successful projects universally supported by the Honduran government and its people, Ou said.
Building on this deep friendship, Taiwan would continue to improve cooperation and consolidate ties between the two nations, she added.
At the end of last year, Honduras had public debt of more than US$13 billion, equivalent to 55 percent of GDP, Honduran Ministry of Finance data showed.
Of that, US$8.45 billion was foreign debt.
No reliable polling has yet been published for the election, in which several candidates are to face Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry Asfura, who is backed by Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Hernandez’s rule has been dogged by allegations of vote-rigging in 2017 and accusations raised in US courts, which he denies, of his links to drug traffickers.
However, he remains an influential figure and his National Party is still the strongest force in Honduran politics.
Additional reporting by AFP
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
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
RSS