Paraguayan President Luis Gonzalez Macchi is due to leave for Taiwan on Friday for a five-day visit in which he will meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
The visit, showing Paraguay's support for the nation, comes amid controversy after Chen urged Taiwanese to urgently consider the need to pass legislation providing for referendums and a trip this week to Indonesia by the vice president that outraged Beijing.
Paraguay will keep up full diplomatic, commercial and cultural ties with Taiwan, while working to establish relations with China, Gonzalez Macchi said.
In Taipei, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said that Gonzalez apparently made the remarks to pre-empt Beijing from setting any preconditions upon its possible forging of ties with Paraguay.
The official stressed that Paraguay attaches great importance to maintaining formal relations with Taiwan.
Beijing has sent two missions to Paraguay this year, promoting "the enormous comparative advantages" of choosing diplomatic relations with China over Taiwan.
Of the 27 countries that officially recognize the Republic of China, Paraguay is the only one in South America.
"As a sign of our friendship we are going over to support Taiwan now in these difficult times," said Paraguayan Foreign Minister Jose Moreno, who said Paraguay would recognize both China and Taiwan.
"They are two different countries as far as we are concerned," Moreno said.
Coinciding with Gonzalez Macchi's visit, Taiwan announced it was lending US$25 million to the South American country for infrastructure work through the Inter American Development Bank and the World Bank.
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