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.
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