The country's relations with ally Nicaragua are stable, despite reports that president-elect Daniel Ortega may switch the Latin American country's allegiance to China, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday.
"Our ties with Nicaragua are close and stable. We have many plans for ongoing cooperation and we hope the new Nicaraguan leader will further promote our bilateral ties on a mutually beneficial basis," ministry spokesman David Wang (
Former US Cold War foe Ortega won Nicaragua's presidential election on Wednesday, 16 years after he was voted out of office at the end of a bloody civil war against US-backed Contra rebels.
Ortega, of the reformed Sandinista Party, has since traded his Marxist policies for a more liberal political agenda.
Taipei in 1985 severed ties with Managua when Ortega's government recognized Beijing, but re-established diplomatic relations with it in 1990.
Ortega had previously vowed to recognize Beijing if re-elected.
"That was some 20 years ago and against the backdrop of a civil war. We are cautiously optimistic that Oretga would consider current domestic and international situations to maintain ties with Taiwan," Wang said.
Nicaragua is one of only 24 countries that recognizes Taipei rather than Beijing.
Officials said yesterday that the ministry will enhance communication with Nicaragua's new leader and "will unfold active cooperative plans with Nicaragua to consolidate the two nations' relations."
The officials did not elaborate on what they meant by "active cooperative plans."
Simon Ko (柯森耀), director-general of the ministry's Department of Central and South American Affairs, said yesterday during a regular press briefing that he held an optimistic attitude on the relations between Taiwan and Nicaragua -- although he admitted that the ministry was concerned about some of Ortega's remarks.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
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‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
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