Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.
“Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country.
Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a visit earlier this year by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Lin said.
Photo: Reuters
Rubio’s trip included visits to Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala, during which he commended Guatemala for its steadfast recognition of Taiwan as a “democratic nation,” despite mounting international pressure for it to change that stance.
Guatemala and Belize are Taiwan’s two remaining diplomatic allies in Central America.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chun-yu (陳俊宇) asked Lin about campaign promises from two presidential candidates in Honduras to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Chen was referring to Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party and Nasry Asfura of the National Party, who are running against Honduran Secretary of National Defense Rixi Moncada of the governing Liberty and Refoundation Party in the general elections scheduled for Nov. 30.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro, whose term ends this year, switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 2023.
Since then, the Central American country has seen a sharp decline in its whiteleg shrimp farming industry, as Taiwan, which was the largest importer of Honduran shrimp, has since shifted to Belize for imported shrimp, Lin said.
Honduras’ shrimp exports fell from 9.2 million kilograms in 2023 to 3 million kilograms last year, a Radio America report said, citing data from the Asociacion Nacional de Acuicultores de Honduras.
In 2022, Taiwan was the main market for Honduran shrimp exports, buying nearly 40 percent.
Meanwhile, Lin said that as part of his ministry’s Diplomatic Allies Prosperity Project, Taiwan has been working with its lone South American ally, Paraguay, to help develop the country’s high-tech and artificial intelligence capabilities.
The project puts forward major initiatives in Taiwan’s “five trusted industry sectors” to help its diplomatic allies prosper, he said.
Taiwan is using the initiative as a major incentive to attract new diplomatic partners and encourage the return of former allies, he said.
Since May 2016, when then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office for her first term, Taiwan has lost 10 diplomatic allies to China, five of them in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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