Nicaragua hints it may cut ties with Taiwan: report

Jun 13, 2007, 5:23 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan, after losing Costa Rica's diplomatic recognition to China, is bracing for another wave of its allies' defecting to rival Beijing, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

The China Times said that after Costa Rica dropped Taiwan to recognize China on June 1, ties with Nicaragua and St Lucia are also shaky, and Nicaragua has hinted it might cut ties with Taipei.

The China Times said that when Foreign Minister Huang Chih-fang visited Nicaragua May 22-23, Nicaragua's Vice President Jaime Morales dropped the hint to Huang.

Morales said that Nicaragua, as a sovereign country, could choose its own friends, and that Nicaragua also recognized the important role China played in the global economy and world politics.

'To say that Nicaragua could not overlook the importance of China at such a high-level meeting is an important diplomatic signal, though it may not mean immediate danger of Nicaragua's cutting ties,' the China Times quoted an unnamed diplomatic affairs official as saying.

The paper also warned that ties with St Lucia, which resumed ties with Taiwan in May, are also unstable. The same official admitted that Taiwan-St Lucia ties 'have entered the stage of observation' but their honeymoon can still last for some time because Taiwan has already launched aid programmes in St Lucia.

After Nicaragua, an ally of Taiwan for 63 years, abandoned Taipei, analysts have warned of a domino effect on Taiwan's remaining allies, 13 of them in Latin America, including six in Central America.

Taiwan is currently recognized by 24 mostly-small nations. China has called on these countries to drop Taipei and recognize Beijing, which sees Taiwan as its breakaway province.