December 23 is the deadline required by Nicaragua for the departure of the diplomatic mission of Taiwan from the country, after broke diplomatic relations on December 9 to later reestablish them with the People’s Republic of China, which they recognized as the “only and legitimate China.”
According to Jaushieh Joseph Wu, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan (Mofa), the Government of Nicaragua ordered the closure of the Taiwanese embassy in that country and in reciprocity, Taipei also established December 23 as the deadline for the Central American country to evacuate the entire diplomatic mission that is in the Asian country.
Mofa spokeswoman Joanne Ou told the media that the date was communicated by Nicaragua during the negotiations that took place in the framework of the diplomatic breakdown announced by Nicaragua last December 9.
Taiwan asks to guarantee security of diplomatic personnel and their families
Wu also said they hope that Nicaragua will allow the staff of the Taiwanese Embassy in Nicaragua to guarantee the safety of the staff and allow the completion of administrative procedures, in accordance with international practices.
According to the Taiwanese media, in Nicaragua there are 52 people who are members of that country’s diplomacy, along with their families, and all are expected to gradually leave Nicaragua. These same press media, citing diplomatic sources from the Asian island, they claimed that the common thing is to give staff a month to leave a country after the breakdown of relationshipsBut Nicaragua demanded that everyone leave within 13 days.
Three days after announcing the severance of diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Daniel Ortega ordered the National Assembly, controlled by his deputies and his collaborationist allies, to repeal the Free Trade Agreement with the Asian island, signed in 2008.
Hours earlier, Minister Wu had told his country’s media that, despite the separation, Taipei hoped that the trade agreement would remain, or that it would at least remain in effect until Nicaragua officially notified Taiwan of its repeal, what they hadn’t done until December 15th. After the repeal of the trade agreement was announced, Minister Wu explained that it would take six months for it to enter into force.
Official Chinese Party: “They acted in bad faith”
The president of the Chinese Nationalist Party of Taiwan, Eric Chu, reacted annoyed by the breakdown of relations between Taiwan and Nicaragua and accused the Daniel Ortega regime of having acted in bad faith, and that the betrayal of trust has upset the Taiwanese.
“Acting in bad faith, the Government of Nicaragua has ignored the long assistance and support of Taiwan, which has made people very angry,” Chu posted on his social media.
Taiwanese cooperation with Nicaragua dates back 31 years, and in at least the last two years, while Ortega has been isolated for the murders committed by his regime against citizens who asked for his resignation in 2018, the Asian country allocated at least 30 million dollars annually in direct cooperation.
For two consecutive years (2020, and the first three quarters of 2021), Taiwan was the most generous of bilateral donors with the Nicaraguan public sector.
According to the Report of Official External Cooperation (ICOE 2020), of the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN), last year, the small country installed on the Asian island of Formosa delivered 27.9 million dollars (45.1% of the 61.8 million dollars received by the public sector), to which are added 0.1 million donated to the private sector (the report does not indicate to whom or for what), with which the island’s contribution rose to 28 million donated in 2020.
Most of that amount (15.6 million dollars), was allocated to the heading “social services, health and education”, while another 6.4 million went to the public administration; 4.0 million, to the section ‘agriculture, livestock, fishing and forestry’; 1.0 million to ‘construction’, and 0.9 million to ‘other’.
Ortega maintained relations with Taiwan for 15 years, the time he has been in office in Nicaragua, but this break is the second ordered by the Sandinista leader while he is in charge of the Central American country.
The first time that Ortega ordered to break relations with Taiwan in favor of China was in 1985 during his first government, these were resumed in 1990 and lasted until this December 9 when Ortega, again, made the same move and it left Taiwan declaring that “there is only one China.”
The Taiwanese media have also highlighted that, in Nicaragua, despite the fact that Ortega has benefited from Taiwan’s cooperation programs, he repeatedly rejected invitations to go to the Asian country.
