Taipei - Taiwan on Tuesday denied that its diplomatic ties
with Paraguay are shaky, following press reports that Paraguay will
stop backing United Nations membership for Taiwan.
'In our allies' change of government, there might be changes in
their support for our joining international organizations, but it
will not affect bilateral ties,' Foreign Ministry Spokesman Chen
Ming-cheng told reporters.
'President Lugo has said several times that Paraguay-Taiwan ties
are solid, so Taiwan-Paraguay ties will not change because of change
in Paraguay's support for Taiwan's UN bid,' he noted.
Chen made the remark in response to press reports that President
Fernando Lugo, in a television interview on Sunday, said Paraguay
would not back Taiwan's attempt to join the UN.
Lugo, inaugurated on August 15, said Paraguay will reverse its
historic support for Taiwan at the 63rd session of the UN General
Assembly which opens on September 16, and is also reconsidering its
relations with communist regimes.
'We will no longer vote (at the UN) for Taiwan despite the fact
that we recognize the aid the country has provided,' Lugo said.
Since winning the election on April 20, the leftist former
Catholic bishop Lugo has hinted that Paraguay should launch ties with
China, but stopped short of saying Asuncion would cut ties with
Taiwan.
Several Taiwan lawmakers have blamed President Ma Ying-jeou's
'diplomatic truce' for causing confusion among Taiwan's 23 diplomatic
allies and making them withdraw support for Taiwan's UN bid.
'President Ma's 'diplomatic truce' will trigger a wave of our
allies' cutting ties with Taiwan. When the number of our allies is
down to zero, Taiwan will (no longer exist as a sovereign nation and)
become a part of China,' Tsai Huang-lang, a lawmaker from the
opposition Democratic Progressive Party, said.
Chiang Hsiao-yen, a lawmaker from the ruling Chinese Nationalist
Party (KMT), also expressed doubt about Ma's diplomatic truce.
'In launching the 'diplomatic truce,' goodwill from China is very
important. It is better to announce it after we have reached an
agreement with China on it,' he said.
When Ma, from the China-friendly KMT, took office on May 20, he
sought peace with China and proposed a halt to their long-time
competition to woo each others' diplomatic allies.
China welcomed Ma's peace overtures but has not made an official
response to his diplomatic truce, because China sees Taiwan as its
breakaway province and is opposed to foreign countries' having any
formal contacts with Taiwan.
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