Taiwan is willing to provide its diplomatic allies with domestically produced COVID-19 vaccines after the products obtain emergency use authorization, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, while reaffirming ties with Paraguay.
Asked about media reports that Paraguay might switch ties from Taiwan to China to obtain vaccines, Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Director-General Alexander Yui (俞大㵢) said that Paraguay did have some difficulty obtaining vaccines, which has led to political turbulence in the country.
However, with the help of several countries, Asuncion has continued to receive vaccines, Yui told a news briefing in Taipei.
Photo: Peng Wan-hsin, Taipei Times
Paraguay is one of Taiwan’s 15 diplomatic allies and the only one in South America.
“Euclides Acevedo, Paraguay’s foreign minister, said recently that Beijing had made it clear that it is interested in establishing ties with Paraguay,” the New York Times reported on Friday last week. “He has dangled that prospect of making the diplomatic switch as he has sought to pressure Taiwan and its ally, the United States, to get vaccines to Paraguay quickly.”
While many people have been concerned about Taiwan-Paraguay ties recently, the situation reported by foreign media was some time ago, Yui said, without naming a media firm.
Statements that assert Taiwan-Paraguay ties are in danger are not true, he said.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) on Monday said that domestically developed vaccines have completed phase 1 clinical tests and might obtain emergency use authorization by July at the earliest.
Asked if Taiwan might supply diplomatic allies with locally developed vaccines, Yui said that some allies have demand for vaccines, while Taiwan is helping them meet that demand “by engaging other friends.”
If locally produced vaccines could obtain emergency use authorization, using them for foreign aid would indeed be one of the government’s options after domestic demand is met, he said.
Taiwan since last year has been providing allies with medical supplies, such as masks and other disease prevention materials, he said.
Asked to comment on China’s “vaccine diplomacy” to poach Taiwan’s allies, Yui said that the relationship with Paraguay is not an exception, as there are many media reports about the tactics that China and Russia use to expand their clout by providing COVID-19 vaccines.
Nonetheless, Taiwan has been working with like-minded partners to help its allies obtain vaccines, he said.
In related news, Yui is to replace Miguel Tsao (曹立傑) as vice minister of foreign affairs, while Tsao is to become representative to Argentina.
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