Guatemalan and Taiwan pledge to strengthen diplomatic ties

Taipei - Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom ended his visit to Taiwan Saturday with the two countries pledging to strengthen diplomatic ties and Taiwan offering more aid to Guatemala. At the end of his five-day visit, Colom on Saturday held talks with President Ma Ying-jeou and signed a joint communique in which the two leaders pledged to strengthen the seven decades of friendly ties and boost cooperation in all fields. The statement recounted the cooperation projects agreed upon by both sides, but did not mention the cost of the cooperation projects or amount of new aid. Taiwan agreed to fund the third-phase expansion of the CA-09 Highway and to make a feasibility study for widening another section of the highway's north route leading to Port Barrios. 'The expansion of this section can boost trade and transportation and make it easier for tourists to travel to north and northeast Guatemala,' the statement said. Taiwan pledged to continue to help upgrade Guatemalan police and jail system by helping Guatemala develop a fingerprint identification system and building a prison for Guatemala. The two presidents also stressed the importance of implementing the Guatemala Rural Development Plan, which covers food safety, ending poverty, building houses, training for rural women and rural health care. Colom showed Ma a short film introducing a 22-square-kilometre historical relics' preservation zone being developed by Guatemala. After watching the film, Ma said that Maya culture is a precious heritage of human civilization and its preservations is a responsibility of both Guatemala and the world. Colom was in Taipei to attend the October 10 Naitonal Day celebrations and was the only head of state among the 171 foreign guests invited to the event. Guatemala is one of the 23 countries recognizing Taiwan, half of which are in Latin America and the Caribbean. After Costa Rica dropped Taiwan to recognize China in June 2007, ending six decades of friendship, there were rumors that some other Latin American allies of Taiwan plan to launch diplomatic ties with China to benefit from China's world influence and economic clout. Taiwan has said that it accepts its allies recognizing China if they maintain diplomatic ties with Taipei. But China, which sees Taiwan as its breakaway province, insists that foreign countries must first cut ties with Taiwan before they can open diplomatic relations with Beijing.