Taiwan assured this Sunday that the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, “has illusions” before the promises of the Chinese regime of an alleged financial aidshortly after the Central American country announced the break of relations with Taipei.
“President Castro and her government team have illusions about China and have used the issue of changing recognition as a campaign issue”, declared the Taiwanese foreign minister, Joseph Wu.
“China has not ceased in its attempts to attract Honduras with financial incentives”, he added
Wu confirmed the break in ties between the two countries at a press conference in Taipei and assured that he would close his embassy in Honduras and withdraw his ambassador.
Taiwan called its ambassador in Tegucigalpa for consultations on Thursday, within the framework of the Central American country’s diplomatic turn towards Beijing.
“Honduras ignored more than 80 years of friendship by sending its foreign minister to China, which has seriously damaged the feelings of our government and our people”, said in a statement Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Taipei had already warned Honduras of “Don’t fall into the Chinese debt trap”, for his intention to establish relations with the Asian giant due to his economic “needs”.
Latin America has been the crucial scene of disputes between China and Taiwan since they separated in 1949 after the triumph of the communist forces in the Chinese civil war.
Aligned with Washington, all the Central American countries remained tied to Taiwan for decades.
Costa Rica (in 2007), Panama (2017), He savior (2018) and Nicaragua (2021) broke with Taiwan and linked up with the Chinese regime, which has spent many years seeking to get Taipei’s diplomatic allies to switch sides.
After Honduras’s decision, only 13 countries in the world recognize Taiwan, including Paraguay, Haiti and seven other small island nations of the Caribbean and Pacific.
The Minister of the Presidency of Honduras, Rodolfo Pastoracknowledged that “Taiwan has been an important ally in our country and we are deeply grateful (…), however, at this time we also have to recognize a global reality, a world scenario that marks the rise of China as an economic power , commercial and political.
During the campaign that led her to the presidency, Xiomara Castro had announced that she would seek to establish relations with China but after taking office, on January 27, 2022, the government caused surprise by stating that relations with Taiwan were continuing.
In an apparent effort to consolidate this small group of allies, Taiwan on Tuesday announced a visit by President Tsai Ing-wen to Guatemala and belize next week.
The trip will serve to “demonstrate the importance we attach to our allies and further deepen cooperation and development among democratic allies,” Tsai’s office said.
(With information from AFP)
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