Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has welcomed the President of Guatemala, Oscar Berger, aiming to further strengthen Taiwanese ties with Latin America.
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has welcomed the President of Guatemala, Oscar Berger, aiming to further strengthen Taiwanese ties with Latin America.
Below is an article written by the Associated Press and published by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
The Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian welcomed his Guatemalan counterpart on Wednesday [20 June 2007], two weeks after the island's loss of another longtime Latin American ally prompted fears of a collapse in its regional diplomatic standing.
Chen hailed President Oscar Berger at an elaborate ceremony in front of the ornate presidential office building, extolling the two sides' close relations.
"We have common values like democracy and human rights," he said.
Berger's visit comes as Taiwan struggles to maintain its faltering diplomatic position, which received a heavy blow earlier this month when longtime ally Costa Rica announced that it was changing its recognition to Taiwan's rival, China.
Taiwan and communist China split amid civil war in 1949. In the subsequent battle to win other countries' diplomatic allegiance, the two rivals routinely offer generous grants and other inducements to poor nations, including those in Latin America.
Costa Rica's switch left Taiwan with only 24 diplomatic partners - mostly small, and impoverished nations in Latin America, Africa and the south Pacific. They include the Solomon Islands, Nicaragua and Burkina Faso.
After Costa Rica's announcement, Taiwan's foreign ministry said it was taking extraordinary measures to strengthen its Latin American position. Vice president Annette Lu said she would visit the region in July.
The high-water mark for Taiwan's diplomatic profile came in 1969, when it had full relations with 67 countries including the United States and much of western Europe.
Things started to go badly for the island's diplomatic ties in 1971, when the United Nations shifted its recognition from Taipei to Beijing. By 1979 - when the United States pulled its embassy out of the Taiwanese capital - only 22 countries were left.
