1678860140 Honduras wants official ties with China Taiwan conjures up bad

Honduras wants ‘official’ ties with China, Taiwan conjures up ‘bad decision’

Honduran President Xiomara Castro on September 20, 2022 in New York. President of Honduras Xiomara Castro in New York September 20, 2022. AMR ALFIKY/ Portal

Honduras is transforming its international relations by officially reaching out to Beijing. “I have commissioned Foreign Minister Eduardo Reina to oversee the establishment of official relations with the People’s Republic of China,” announced Tuesday, March 14 on Twitter, the Honduran President Xiomara Castro.

This decision should result in a de facto rift between Honduras and Taiwan, as communist China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan, does not accept that countries can maintain diplomatic relations with both it and Taipei.

“We ask Honduras to think carefully and not fall into China’s trap by making a bad decision that will damage the long-standing friendship between Taiwan and Honduras,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

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Only fourteen countries in the world recognize Taiwan, including Paraguay, Haiti, the Vatican and several small island nations in the Caribbean and Pacific.

Xiomara Castro, who took office in early 2022, announced his intention to recognize China “immediately” before taking office. But Tegucigalpa later said ties with Taiwan would continue following a visit by Taiwan Vice President William Lai to inaugurate Ms. Castro.

Dams financed by Beijing

Ms. Castro’s tweet “does not clarify what kind of relationship” Honduras wants to build with Beijing, Honduran analyst Raul Pineda noted. “When it comes to diplomatic relations, it will lead to a break with Taiwan and a distancing from the United States,” he added, as relations between Washington and Beijing are very strained at the moment.

On January 1, 2023, the head of Honduran diplomacy met with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng on the sidelines of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s inauguration ceremony. On February 2, Mr. Reina announced negotiations with China to build a hydroelectric power station, while denying that Tegucigalpa wanted diplomatic recognition of Beijing. China had already financed another dam in Honduras with 300 million dollars (around 279 million euros), which was inaugurated in 2021 by then President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

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Latin America has been a key diplomatic battleground between Beijing and Taipei since 1949, when the communists seized power in mainland China and the nationalist government took refuge on the island of Taiwan. In line with Washington, all Central American countries have remained tied to Taiwan for decades. But today only Honduras, Guatemala and Belize have connections to the island. Costa Rica (2007), Panama (2017), El Salvador (2018) and Nicaragua (2021) broke with Taipei and recognized Beijing.

The world with AFP