Le Honduras veut établir des relations ” officielles ” avec la Chine, Taïwan évoque une ” mauvaise décision “

The announcement of the president of Honduras should de facto lead to a break in ties with Taiwan since China does not accept that countries can have diplomatic relations both with her and with this island whose sovereignty she claims .

the world with AFP

Honduras is a switch to its international relations by officially approaching Beijing. “I gave instruction to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eduardo Reina, to manage the opening of official relations with the People’s Republic of China”, announced, Tuesday March 14 on Twitter, the Honduarian president, Xiomara Castro .

This decision should de facto lead to a break between Honduras and Taiwan, since Communist China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan, does not accept that countries can have diplomatic relations with both it and with Taipei.

“We ask Honduras to think carefully and not fall into the trap of China by making a bad decision that would harm the long -term friendship between Taiwan and Honduras,” reacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Taiwanese in a press release.

Only fourteen countries in the world recognize Taiwan, including Paraguay, Haiti, the Vatican and several small island nations of the Caribbean and Pacific.

Xiomara Castro, who took office in early 2022, had announced before his power his intention to “immediately” recognize China. But Tegucigalpa later said that relations with Taiwan continued, after a visit to the Taiwanese vice-president, William Lai, for the inauguration of M ^{me Castro.}

Dams funded by Beijing 2>

The tweet of M ^{me Castro “does not clarify what type of relationships” Honduras wishes to establish with Beijing, points out the Hondurian analyst, Raul Pineda. “If they are diplomatic relations, this will lead to a break with Taiwan and a distance from the United States,” he added, relations between Washington and Beijing being currently very tense.}

On 1 er January 2023, the Honduurian diplomacy chief had met Chinese Foreign Vice Minister, Xie Feng, on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony of the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. On February 2, Reina announced negotiations with China to build a hydroelectric dam, while denying that Tegucigalpa wanted to diplomatically recognize Beijing. China had already financed up to $ 300 million (around 279 million euros) another dam in Honduras, inaugurated in 2021 by the president of the time, Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Latin America has been an important diplomatic battlefield between Beijing and Taipei since 1949, when the Communists took power in Continental China and where the nationalist government took refuge on the island of Taiwan. Aligned on Washington, all the countries of Central America have remained for decades linked to Taiwan. But today, only Honduras, Guatemala and Belize have links with the island. Costa Rica (in 2007), Panama (2017), Salvador (2018) and Nicaragua (2021) broke with Taipei and recognized Beijing.