Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen offered more cooperation from Taipei during her visit to Guatemala, one of the countries the island still has formal relations with. Tsai’s pledge follows the severing of diplomatic relations by Honduras in favor of China.
Tsai, over the weekend, completed her three-day visit to Guatemala, where she met with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and his administration. Tsai signed a $4 million agreement to modernize rural areas and pledged to promote and increase cooperation between Taiwan and Guatemala.
“From now on, Taiwan and Guatemala will continue to show solidarity to each other, deepening cooperation in all possible areas based on firm objectives, solidarity, and mutual benefit,” said Tsai during her tour of a hospital that was built with the help from Taiwan.
Giammattei also thanked Tsai for visiting his country. The country’s stance on maintaining relations with Taiwan is part of an effort, according to Guatemalan foreign minister Edgar Guttierez, to gain favor with the United States at a time when relations with Washington have come under strain.
Gutierrez told Reuters that the government is looking to rebuild relations with certain US institutions by “offering Guatemala as a migrant deposit, moving its embassy to Jerusalem, supporting Ukraine, extraditing more than 100 drug traffickers in 2022, and remaining an ally of Taiwan.”
Following her visit to Guatemala, Tsai traveled to Belize on Sunday, a week after Taiwan’s diplomatic allies narrowed down to 13 when Honduras decided to open formal relations with China, ending its longtime diplomatic relations with the island nation.
Both China and Taiwan have sought to further their influence in Latin America since 1949. China claims Taiwan as its territory and has opposed interactions between foreign governments and the democratically-governed island. Taiwan has repeatedly rejected China’s assertions of sovereignty.
China has sought to further pressure Taiwan by making frequent incursions into Taiwanese airspace. The Taiwanese defense ministry said on Saturday that 10 Chinese aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which serves as an unofficial barrier between the mainland and the island nation.
The ministry said that nine Chinese fighter jets and one military drone crossed the median line, and Taiwan responded by sending aircraft to warn away the Chinese planes, monitoring the aircraft with their missile systems.