Taiwan severed diplomatic ties with Honduras and ended all cooperation with the Central American country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, about an hour and a half after the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Twitter at 8am Taiwan time that the nation would cut its ties with Taiwan.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Wednesday sent Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina to Beijing to negotiate the establishment of diplomatic relations.
She announced the plan on March 14 on Twitter.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
“To safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity, Taiwan is terminating diplomatic ties with Honduras with immediate effect” after communication with the country failed, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told a news conference at 9:30am in Taipei.
After the switch, Taiwan has official diplomatic relations with 13 UN-recognized states, as well as Somaliland.
The Presidential Office in a statement said Taiwan would “not engage in a meaningless contest of dollar diplomacy with China.”
Suppressing Taiwan’s international space and undermining regional peace do not change the fact that Taiwan and China are not subordinate to each other, it added.
Beijing’s pressure and coercion “cannot erode the Taiwanese people’s staunch commitment to freedom and democracy, or our determination to engage wholeheartedly with the world,” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in a video published shortly after Honduras’ diplomatic switch.
Wu said Taiwan is withdrawing its embassy in Honduras, the consulate general in San Pedro Sula and its technical missions in the country, and asking Honduras to close its embassy in Taiwan.
The ambassador to Honduras has returned to Taiwan, and 61 staff at the embassy, the consulate and the missions, as well as their family members, would return to the nation or be transferred to other embassies as soon as possible, he said.
The fewer than 100 Taiwanese living in Honduras would not be affected, he added.
The Honduran ambassador to Taiwan left the nation on Saturday, Wu said.
“Castro and her administration always had a fantasy about China,” which has been using the lure of economic gain to attract Honduras, he said.
Taiwan has been striving to maintain good relations with Honduras with utmost sincerity since Castro took office, but her government requested huge economic assistance from Taiwan, and compared the amounts proposed by Taiwan and China, he said.
Honduras last year requested that Taiwan provide US$45 million to help build a hospital and another US$300 million to help build a dam, in addition to paying US$2 billion of their national debt, he said.
In a letter to Wu dated March 14, Reina wrote that Honduras is raising its demands to US$90 million and US$350 million respectively, which amounted to US$2.44 billion with the national debt request, he said.
Unlike cooperative projects with other diplomatic allies, it seemed that Honduras “wanted money, instead of a hospital,” he said, adding that this kind of “opaque aid” is not what Taiwan should provide.
Over the years, Taiwan implemented joint projects in Honduras that benefited its economy and people’s livelihood in a wide range of fields, joined relief efforts immediately after floods struck, and sent technical missions to provide help on agricultural, fishery and healthcare projects, he said.
It is “saddening and regretful” that Honduras disregarded Taiwan’s long-term assistance and friendship, and began negotiations to establish diplomatic ties with China, he added.
Considering all the assistance Taiwan has provided to Honduras, the termination of ties makes it “impossible” for Taiwan and Honduras to maintain any semi-official exchanges, he said.
By repeatedly making false promises to lure away Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and suppress its diplomatic space, Beijing “is pushing cross-strait relations in the wrong direction,” he said.
Taiwan would not succumb to China’s pressure and coercion, and would unite with allies and like-minded countries based on freedom and democracy to maintain regional peace and stability, while striving for Taiwan’s due international status, he said.
The government would continue to expand Taiwan’s international space by deepening ties with like-minded countries, which has proved fruitful in the past few years, he said.
Meanwhile, Honduran Vice President Salvador Nasralla on Saturday expressed opposition to Castro’s decision to establish ties with China, saying it would result in severe consequences and lead the country into poverty.
The opposition National Party called the decision selling out the nation’s sovereignty and dignity to “the highest bidder,” the Central News Agency cited it as saying.
Most Hondurans find that cutting ties with Taiwan is regrettable, the party said.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
GLOBAL PROJECT: Underseas cables ‘are the nervous system of democratic connectivity,’ which is under stress, Member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said The government yesterday launched an initiative to promote global cooperation on improved security of undersea cables, following reported disruptions of such cables near Taiwan and around the world. The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to “bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at a seminar in Taipei. The project would be known as “RISK,” an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform and knowledge building, he said at the seminar, titled “Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum.” Taiwan sits at a vital junction on
RSS