Guatemalan presidential candidate Bernardo Arevalo on Wednesday said he has “no interest” in changing the country’s diplomatic ties with Taiwan should he be elected as the Central American nation’s next president.
Arevalo, who is running against Guatemala’s former first lady Sandra Torres in the country’s presidential runoff election on Aug. 20, made the comment in a teleconference with the Washington-based Atlantic Council.
Guatemala is one of 13 countries that recognize Taiwan, including the Holy See, and the relations with the country were established in 1933.
Photo: Reuters
“We are discussing [with Taiwanese officials] the ways in which we can ... harness their cooperation into our development plans,” he said. “We have made it very clear that there is no interest in altering the diplomatic relations between our countries.”
Asked whether he expects Guatemala’s “status quo” with Taiwan to be maintained, Arevalo said that expanding trade with China and keeping his country’s diplomatic relations with Taiwan are not mutually exclusive.
“We do not see that [as] being contradictory with the fact that there [are] already commercial ties established between Guatemala and the People’s Republic of China,” he said.
“[F]or us working in both directions, keeping diplomatic relations with Taiwan and exploring commercial relations with China are completely compatible,” he said.
Last month, Arevalo told local radio station Con Criterio that he would increase Guatemala’s economic cooperation with potential foreign partners as president and mentioned Beijing as an example.
Guatemala should be the master of its own foreign policy and he would seek to maintain good relations with Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China if elected president, Arevalo said at the time.
The 64-year-old Arevalo visited Taiwan in 1994 when he was deputy minister of foreign affairs.
Arevalo came in second in the first-round presidential election on June 25 with 12 percent of the total votes cast after running a campaign that focused on corruption.
Guatemalan police on Friday last week raided the offices of Arevalo’s Semilla party for alleged irregularities in a move condemned by the candidate, the US and the EU.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS