Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina said that his country plans to maintain its diplomatic ties with Taiwan while suggesting flexibility in the relationship.
“In the case of Taiwan, we are maintaining a fluid relationship,” Reina said.
Reina also said that Honduras and the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro had resumed diplomatic relations, which were severed in 2010.
Photo: AFP
Newly inaugurated Honduran President Xiomara Castro vowed during her campaign that she would switch the country’s recognition to China if she won, although her transition team later said that the new government would maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Castro’s decision to ally Honduras more closely with the Venezuelan administration puts it out of step with Taiwan, which has continued to recognize self-declared interim president and Maduro opponent Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate leader.
Castro was sworn in as president last week following a ceremony attended by Vice President William Lai (賴清德), US Vice President Kamala Harris and other international leaders.
Meanwhile, a senior US official said that he thinks the relationship between Taiwan and Honduras would “stay strong.”
US Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Brian Nichols told a US House of Representatives committee hearing that Harris had raised the issue of diplomatic ties between Taiwan and Honduras during Castro’s trip to Tegucigalpa.
Castro responded by saying that her government intends to continue relations with Taipei, he said, adding that the US had raised the same issue with the eight countries in the western hemisphere that Taiwan has diplomatic relations with.
“We continue to talk about the benefits of that relationship, and the shared values of respectful democracy and human rights that Taiwan espouses, and the benefits that we all receive from an active Taiwan in our hemisphere,” Nichols said.
Taiwan has 14 diplomatic allies, most of which are in the South Pacific, Latin American, and the Caribbean.
While in Honduras, Lai was in contact with Belizean Prime Minister John Briceno, who later tested positive for COVID-19. The Presidential Office said on Thursday that Lai remains in good health.
Briceno was said by his office to have contracted the virus after his meeting with Lai and has since been in isolation.
Lai is in quarantine and tested negative for COVID-19 after taking a rapid test on Wednesday, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said.
Chang said Lai, along with all members of Taiwan’s delegation, underwent numerous rapid tests during the trip, all of which showed negative results.
Chang added that both President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Lai have extended their good wishes to Briceno for a quick recovery.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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