Mon, Aug 19, 2024 page1

• Taipei open to better ties with Honduras: MOFA

  PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL: Salvador Nasralla said Honduras benefited far more from trade with Taiwan than China, and if elected, he would re-establish ties with Taipei

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  Taiwan is open to “any opportunity” to enhance ties with Honduras, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, after a Honduran opposition leader said he would re-establish ties with Taipei if elected president next year.

  The ministry said in a statement that it continues to uphold “honesty and openness” when engaging with countries around the world, including Honduras, a former diplomatic ally of Taiwan.

  Taiwan “will not set any preconditions for establishing relations with a foreign country and has always taken seriously any opportunity to elevate its international status and expand its global presence,” the statement said.

  

  Salvador Nasralla, who later became Honduran first vice president, speaks at a rally in Tegucigalpa on Sept. 5, 2021, while running for president under a coalition.

  Photo: Reuters

  Former Honduran first vice president Salvador Nasralla is vying to be nominated by his party, Partido Liberal, to run for president.

  In an interview on Saturday with local station Radio America, Nasralla, who served as first vice president from 2022 until his resignation early last year, pledged that if he won next year’s elections, he would re-establish diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

  Honduras last year cut ties with Taipei to establish diplomatic relations with Beijing.

  In the interview, Nasralla said he opposed the free-trade agreement (FTA) that the Honduran government intends to sign with China.

  “Our trade with China does not need an FTA, and these quadrupeds of the government led by [Manuel] Zelaya are handing over the national territory to a power taking advantage of the ignorance of the people who govern the country today,” he said.

  Zelaya, a former Honduran president, is the husband and main adviser to Honduran President Xiomara Castro.

  Data showed that in 2022, Honduras’ exports to Taiwan totaled US$121 million, Nasralla said.

  Exports to China were only US$11 million, while imports from China were more than US$200 million, he said.

  Honduras and China have had an “unfavorable trade balance” since forming ties in March last year, Nasralla said.

  Ending of diplomatic ties with Taiwan cost Honduras 8,000 jobs directly and 50,000 jobs indirectly in the shrimp industry alone, he said.

  Nasralla also criticized the Castro administration for its FTA talks with China in a post on X on Thursday last week.

  “Mainland China makes huge promises that in the end it does not fulfill, as Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador have already proven,” Nasralla said, pointing to three of Taiwan’s former allies in the region.

  In contrast, Honduras was able to enjoy stable shrimp exports to “our friends in Taiwan,” he said.

  Citing Nasralla’s post, the ministry in its statement yesterday said that China had never fulfilled the promises it has made to Taiwan’s former allies in Latin America, including Honduras.

  Additional reporting by Huang Ching-hsuan

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