Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week.
Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources.
The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report.
Photo: screen grab from the Presidential Office’s Flickr page
The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same day that it opposes any official contact between Taiwan and Costa Rica.
Taiwan severed official diplomatic relations with Costa Rica in June 2007, ending 66 years of ties, after San Jose switched recognition to the People’s Republic of China.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) yesterday said the ministry could not comment on the report, as it has no information about the reported training program.
The National Security Bureau said in a statement that as the nation’s top intelligence agency, “it is its responsibility to promote international intelligence exchange and cooperation.”
However, the bureau added that it never “comments on individual cases” and therefore would not comment on the report.
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) had yet to provide an official response as of press time last night.
La Nacion’s report did not specify the name of the program the officials undertook in Taiwan.
The ministry has since 1971 offered the “Foreign Friends Course” to train officials from its Latin American allies and friendly Spanish-speaking countries.
The program was expanded in July 1995 with the participation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and renamed the “Foreign Friends National Development Course,” the MND’s Web site says.
In 2017, then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received a group of participants to the program, which consists of a series of international training courses.
Among the participants in the program over the past 46 years, five became their countries’ leader and more than 80 served as Cabinet members, Tsai said.
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