Taiwan vice president heads to Paraguay, Panama to cement ties

May 10, 2011, 17:14 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan Vice President Vincent Siew left Tuesday to visit two of the island's diplomatic allies - Paraguay and Panama - by way of the United States for a 11-day state visit.

Thanks to warming ties between Taiwan and China, his planned stopovers in Los Angeles on his way to Paraguay and New York on his return from Panama did not meet with protest from Beijing - which has long insisted that Taiwan is a Chinese province and warned other countries against admitting political leaders from the island.

Due to previous pressure from China, Paraguay and Panama are among the just 23 nations with which Taiwan has formal relations. With President Ma Ying-jeou engaging China, Beijing, once a political rival of Taipei since the two sides split at the end of a civil war in 1949, has largely eased its pressure against other countries over formal contacts with Taiwan.

However, local news reports have said Panama and Paraguay had tried to switch diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, but their attempts were rebuffed due to Beijing's attempts to improve ties with Taiwan - a result of a Ma's policy to engage China after he took office in 2008.

Although Taiwan's foreign ministry has strongly denied reports of the alleged attempts, saying relations between Taiwan and the two Latin American countries have remained firm, it has strongly advised the the Ma government over the importance of consolidating ties with the two countries, a ministry's official said.

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