(Managua) Nicaragua on Thursday announced the severing of diplomatic relations with Taiwan and recognition of “one China” led by Beijing, reducing to 14 the number of countries now recognizing the democratic island.
“The People’s Republic of China is the sole legitimate government that represents all of China, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory,” Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada said in a statement.
The government of President Daniel Ortega “from today breaks diplomatic relations with Taiwan and ceases any type of official contact or relationship,” he added.
The Taiwanese foreign ministry reacted by expressing “heartfelt pain and regret”, but assured that it would continue to forge alliances elsewhere.
“Taiwan has always been a loyal and reliable friend of Nicaragua,” he said. “There has been a lot of long-term assistance and cooperation between the two sides for civil society, which has yielded substantial results. ”
Chinese state media confirmed the news, indicating that Chinese and Nicaraguan delegations met in Tianjin (northeast) on Friday.
Surprise break
The break, announced by surprise, comes as the United States tightened its sanctions against Daniel Ortega, re-elected in November for a fourth consecutive term after having imprisoned all his rivals.
Taiwan has hitherto cooperated with Nicaragua mainly in the areas of health, agriculture and social housing, and several Taiwanese companies have been established in the Central American country since the 1990s.
When he returned to power in 2007, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla from the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), expressed hope for establishing links with China and Taiwan at the same time, a concept that Beijing doesn’t want to hear about.
Nicaragua had established relations with Beijing during the first Sandinista government (1979-1990), but the government of Violeta Chamorro (1990-1997) then severed them in favor of Taiwan, a situation which continued until Thursday.
Only fourteen countries now recognize Taiwan, where Chinese nationalist troops took refuge in 1949 after their defeat by the Communists.
Beijing considers the island to be a rebellious province which must eventually be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Beijing has increased military, economic and diplomatic pressure on Taipei since the election in 2016 to the Taiwanese presidency of Tsai Ing-wen, from a party traditionally in favor of a formal declaration of independence, a red line for the Chinese government .
Since then, Beijing has wrested from Taipei the diplomatic recognition of eight countries, including four in Latin America (Panama, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua). Guatemala, Honduras and Belize are Taiwan’s last allies in Central America.
In Honduras, President-designate Xiomara Castro, who will take office on January 27, pledged during her campaign to break with Taiwan in favor of Beijing.
After the break with Nicaragua, the fourteen countries that recognize Taiwan are Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Paraguay, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, Eswatini and the Vatican.
Taiwan opened a representative office under its own name in Lithuania in November, angering Beijing. The island has many other such unofficial embassies around the world, but under the name “Taipei”.
The loss of Nicaragua as a formal ally will have little concrete effect for Taipei, said Jessica Drun, Taiwan expert at the Atlantic Council.
“I personally think that the unofficial relations of Taiwan are more vital than the official ones,” she told AFP.