Honduras’ incoming government would maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan, two senior members of the transition team said on Friday, while a senior US administration official said that Washington was ready to “surge” economic aid to the new administration.
The news comes a day after neighboring Nicaragua switched allegiance to re-establish relations with China.
Prior to winning the Honduran presidential election on Nov. 28, Xiomara Castro of the leftist Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE) said if victorious, she would open diplomatic ties with China, but her team has since backtracked on that stance.
Photo: Reuters
Gerardo Torres, LIBRE’s secretary of international relations and a member of Castro’s transition team, said that her government was not about to sever ties with Taipei.
“The new government will maintain relations with Taiwan,” he said. “President-elect Xiomara Castro has been clear, these ties will be maintained. Nobody in the party wants to enter government distancing ourselves from the United States.”
Nevertheless, another of the transition team members, Rodolfo Pastor, kept open the possibility that Honduras would recognize China, calling it a “new superpower” and saying that the Central American country was studying the matter.
Pastor said that Castro wanted to diversify Honduras’ international relations, while emphasizing that there would be “no imminent change” in the relationship with Taiwan as there had been in Nicaragua.
Honduras is eager to work with the US on stamping out the corruption that fuels emigration north, Pastor said, adding that Castro and US President Joe Biden’s administration wanted to tackle the root causes of migration.
Castro’s government would work to maintain good relations with Washington, provided they were based on mutual respect and sovereignty, Pastor said.
Looking ahead, Pastor said it was important for Honduras to find a way of reducing its debt burden so that it could invest in public infrastructure such as hospitals and schools.
Meanwhile, Washington has continued to make the case to Honduras and other countries in the Americas that recognize Taiwan to maintain those ties, and has warned them about China’s intentions and “non-transparent” investment strategy in the region, the US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official said that while Washington was uncertain whether Castro would swat away China’s advances, initial discussions with her transition team have been very positive, including on issues such as boosting economic growth, improving governance and installing an anti-corruption body.
The US is open to sending more financial help to aid Castro on her priority areas as part of broader efforts to show relations with the US are more beneficial to Tegucigalpa than ties with China, the they said.
“I think we can surge resources there, and some of that will be through development resources,” the official said, adding that allies such as Taiwan, Japan and South Korea could help with accelerating private-sector growth.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
Japan and the Philippines yesterday signed a defense pact that would allow the tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel, food and other necessities when their forces stage joint training to boost deterrence against China’s growing aggression in the region and to bolster their preparation for natural disasters. Japan has faced increasing political, trade and security tensions with China, which was angered by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remark that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would be a survival-threatening situation for Japan, triggering a military response. Japan and the Philippines have also had separate territorial conflicts with Beijing in the East and South China
RSS