Paraguayan Foreign Minister Julio Cesar Arriola has clarified remarks reportedly made by his President Mario Abdo Benítez asking Taiwan to invest US$1 billion in the South American country to maintain diplomatic ties, stressing that both allies are bound by common values instead of money, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Thursday.
The Paraguayan foreign minister has told Taiwan’s ambassador Jose Han (韓志正) that the two diplomatic allies’ relationships are built on shared values and close bilateral cooperation and there is no “quid pro quo” for the strong diplomatic ties between both countries, MOFA spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said.
The clarification was made immediately after the Financial Times ran a story early Thursday which quoted Abdo as calling on Taiwan to invest US$1 billion in his country to help him resist “enormous” pressure for it to switch diplomatic recognition to China, according to Ou.
“We are working with the president of Taiwan … so that the Paraguayan people feel the real benefits of the strategic alliance,” Abdo told the Financial Times during a recent visit to the United States.
“There is Taiwanese investment of more than US$6 billion in countries which don’t have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, we want from that US$1 billion to be put in Paraguay,” he said to the Financial Times. “That will help us to build the argument about the importance of this strategic alliance with Taiwan.”
“Imagine what the [agricultural] producers say when meat prices fall and they don’t have access to China,” Abdo said, according to the Financial Times article.
“They ask you: ‘Please, we have to open up to the Chinese market. What does Taiwan give us when we are a country which could sell its entire soy and meat output to China?'” the president told the Financial Times.
According to Ou, the Paraguayan foreign minister told Han that the point Abdo was making to the Financial Times was that Paraguay was the perfect location for Taiwanese to make investments to enter the larger South American market.
Abdo has been a staunch supporter of Taiwan over the years and has repeatedly reaffirmed that Taiwan-Paraguay ties will remain as long as he is in office, according to Ou.
In terms of investment, the spokeswoman said Taiwan had sent two investment delegations to Paraguay this year and the government had continued to encourage more Taiwanese investment in the South American ally as Paraguay has one of the most stable political and economic systems in the Latin American region.
More Taiwanese investment in Paraguay would have profound significance for the Taiwan-Paraguay strategic partnership, MOFA said to the Financial Times by email in response to Abdo’s remarks.
Meanwhile, Ou said Abdo just attended a signing ceremony between TaiwanICDF and Paraguay’s Development Finance Agency on Wednesday, showing that the Paraguayan leader has maintained close relations with the country.
During that ceremony, TaiwanICDF, a development aid agency funded by MOFA, donated US$5 million for the creation of the Guarantee Fund for Women (FOGAMU) to assist Paraguay with economic recovery and women’s empowerment in the post-pandemic era, according to TaiwanICDF.
Paraguay is the only diplomatic ally of Taiwan, officially named the Republic of China, located in South America, among a total of 14 states that diplomatically recognize Taipei instead of Beijing.
Since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) came to office in May 2016, Taiwan has lost eight diplomatic allies to China, namely Burkina Faso, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Kiribati, Nicaragua, Panama, Sao Tome and Principe, and the Solomon Islands, amid deteriorating cross-strait relations.
Among the eight, four of them, Nicaragua, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador, are located in the Latin America and Caribbean region.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel