Paraguayan president-elect Santiago Pena yesterday pledged to bolster ties with Taiwan after winning the presidential election on Sunday in a race in which the South American nation’s ties with Taiwan were at stake.
Replying to a Twitter post on Monday by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) congratulating him on his landslide victory, Pena thanked her “for the good wishes.”
“We are going to continue strengthening our historic ties of brotherhood and cooperation between our countries,” he wrote.
Photo: CNA
Asked whether Tsai would attend Pena’s inauguration ceremony on Aug. 15, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) told a regular news briefing in Taipei that arranging for government leaders to attend the presidential inauguration of a diplomatic ally has always been an important job of the ministry.
The ministry would announce any arrangements at a later date, he said.
Pena, of the ruling Colorado Party, secured 42.7 percent of the votes. His main rival, Efrain Alegre of the Concertacion center-left coalition, who had criticized Paraguay’s diplomatic relations with Taiwan, garnered 27 percent of the votes and populist Paraguayo Cubas received 23 percent.
The result eased fears that Taiwan would lose another ally to China. Taiwan has 13 formal diplomatic allies.
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