The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it has no plans to set up commercial representative offices in the Dominican Republic and Burkina Faso after the nation’s embassies are removed.
According to the timetable agreed upon with the Dominican Republic, Taiwan’s embassy is scheduled to close today, ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) told a routine morning news conference at the ministry in Taipei.
“As for Burkina Faso, the concerned ministry divisions are scheduled to hold a meeting in the following days to discuss the removal of our embassy before we begin negotiations with the other side on the matter,” Lee said.
Past experience suggests that the embassy would be moved within a month, he added.
Burkina Faso on Thursday last week became the latest nation to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan before establishing formal ties with Beijing on Saturday. The Dominican Republic broke off relations with Taiwan and established ties with Beijing on April 30.
The government has never opened a commercial representative office in a formerly allied nation to refrain from setting a dangerous precedent and to prevent further belittlement of the nation’s personnel stationed there, said a high-level government official, who spoke condition of anonymity.
“We have never done that before and have no intention of doing so in the future,” he said.
Alex Shyy (史立軍), deputy secretary-general of the International Cooperation and Development Fund, the main governmental agency responsible for foreign aid work, said that seven specialists and six substitute civilian service personnel comprised its technical mission in Burkina Faso.
“All 13 people will return to Taiwan, as will our five specialists stationed in the Dominican Republic,” Shyy said. “However, the five substitute civilian service workers in the nation’s mission in the Dominican Republic will be reposted to neighboring countries.”
Touting some of the agency’s latest diplomatic achievements, Shyy said it last month sent a group of experts to Palau on a two-week mission to train 50 Palauans how to use taro in various food products, such as pancakes, pastries and ice cream.
“This mission is in line with the Palauan government’s goal of re-establishing taro as the nation’s main staple,” Shyy said, adding that the agency would send experts to Palau again for further training classes if necessary.
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