The Presidential Office yesterday denied talking to Beijing on the nation’s ties with El Salvador after Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou’s (歐鴻鍊) recent remarks suggested Taiwan might be open to dual diplomatic recognition of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
When fielding questions from lawmakers at the Foreign and National Defense Committee on Thursday, in response to a question on whether Taiwan would break ties with El Salvador if it establishes ties with China, Ou said: “No.”
El Salvador, one of Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies, is preparing to inaugurate a left-leaning president, Mauricio Funes, who was elected on March 15.
Reports said that Funes was considering establishing diplomatic links with China after he takes office on June 1. The report has given rise to concern in Taiwan that the Central American ally, one of 23 allies that Taiwan has around the world, would switch recognition to China.
Soon after Ou commented on the issue, ministry spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) told reporters that Taiwan did not wish to see El Salvador and China become diplomatic allies, but would not be opposed to their developing closer trade relations.
Later the same day, Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said the government would not recognize diplomatic ties between the nation’s allies and China.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) reiterated on Friday that Taiwan was not pursuing dual diplomatic recognition, as this had never worked in the past.
“It would be too impractical to seek dual recognition. This would create more problems than it would solve,” Ma said at the time in response to a press query.
A report in the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday said that the Presidential Office had talked to Beijing about El Salvador’s alleged plan to establish ties with China shortly after Ou made the remarks on Thursday.
Wang yesterday dismissed the report, insisting that the government did not contact China or receive any message from Beijing on the issue.
Wang said the Presidential Office had asked the ministry to clarify the issue immediately after Ou made the remarks and also made it clear that the government would not recognize diplomatic ties between the nation’s allies and China.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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