Nicaragua’s decision to switch diplomatic recognition to China last week was likely made by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday.
Ortega won a fourth consecutive term in an election that was seen as controversial and, in response, Washington had announced a series of sanctions on Nicaragua, Wu said, and that was probably why Ortega had decided to ally himself with China and Russia, and to sever ties with Taiwan.
Nicaragua’s decision on Thursday was followed by Taipei’s announcement that it was terminating diplomatic relations with the Central American nation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is making preparations to close Taiwan’s embassy in Nicaragua, and withdraw all personnel and staff stationed there, Wu said, adding that negotiations over the matter are still ongoing.
Wu also explained why the ministry did not hold a news conference on Friday to announce the severance decision, but instead issued a number of news releases, a move that was criticized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) as “irresponsible.”
A number of senior diplomats responsible for the matter were not in Taiwan and therefore the ministry was unable to hold a news conference, Wu said, promising that the ministry would speak to the public about the switch in due course.
Wu was likely referring to the absence of Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui (俞大㵢).
Yui is in charge of Latin American affairs at the ministry and was reportedly visiting Central America in an attempt to stabilize diplomatic ties with Nicaragua before the switch, although the ministry did not confirm his schedule.
Since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in 2016, Taiwan has lost eight diplomatic allies — Burkina Faso, Panama, Sao Tome and Principe, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Nicaragua.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
Taiwan’s Li Yu-hsiang performs in the men’s singles figure skating short program at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday. Li finished 24th with a score of 72.41 to advance to Saturday’s free skate portion of the event. He is the first Taiwanese to qualify for the free skate of men’s singles figure skating at the Olympics since David Liu in 1992.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday held a ceremony marking the delivery of its 11th Anping-class offshore patrol vessel Lanyu (蘭嶼艦), saying it would boost Taiwan’s ability to respond to Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Chung-Lung (張忠龍) presided over the CGA event in the Port of Kaoshiung. Representatives of the National Security Council also attended the event. Designed for long-range and protracted patrol operations at sea, the Lanyu is a 65.4m-long and 14.8m-wide ship with a top speed of 44 knots (81.5kph) and a cruising range of 2,000 nautical miles (3704km). The vessel is equipped with a
A KFC branch in Kaohsiung may be fined between NT$60,000 and NT$200 million (US$1,907 and US$6.37 million), after a customer yesterday found an entire AAA battery inside an egg tart, the Kaohsiung Department of Health said today. The customer was about to microwave a box of egg tarts they had bought at the fast-food restaurant’s Nanzih (楠梓) branch when they checked the bottom and saw a dark shadow inside one of them, they said in a Threads post. The customer filmed themself taking the egg tart apart to reveal an entire AAA battery inside, which apparently showed signs of damage. Surveillance footage showed
RSS