Taiwan told to ‘pack up and leave’ Honduras after ties break

TEGUCIGALPA, March 27 (Reuters) – Taiwan must vacate its embassy in Honduras within 30 days, a senior Honduran official said on Monday, after President Xiomara Castro severed ties with Taiwan in favor of China in a bid to obtain more investment and jobs from Asian countries. giant.

Deputy Foreign Minister Antonio García issued the order on local television Monday, after the government announcement over the weekend that it had opened formal diplomatic relations with Beijing at the same time that it was ending its decades-long relationship with Taiwan.

Castro’s main conservative opposition later announced it would reverse the opening to China if he regains power.

China has long argued that democratically governed Taiwan is part of its own territory with no right to state-to-state ties, a position Taipei strongly rejects. China, run by communists, demands that countries with which it has ties adopt its position.

Taipei’s embassy in Tegucigalpa’s leafy Palmira neighborhood was for years one of the most prominent foreign outposts in the Central American capital, as well as the country’s second-largest embassy after the US embassy.

In his remarks, Garcia said 30 days “is more than enough time to pack up and go,” adding that officials aim for an “orderly and amicable” departure.

Taiwanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jeff Liu said 30 days was an “international standard” and he would comment further at a later date.

The Honduran measure came just before the former president of Taiwan Ma Ying Jeou began a historic visit to China, the first by a current or former Taiwanese president since the defeated ROC government fled to Taiwan in 1949 at the end of a civil war with the communists.

The visit has been sharply criticized by Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

The Honduran vice minister also highlighted the need for a diplomatic mission in China.

“We have to go there to explore the big projects that China can give us,” he said, suggesting that China could invest some $10 billion in Honduras for the benefit of local workers.

The Foreign Ministry also announced that Honduran students with scholarships in Taiwan will be able to transfer their studies to China.

Liu said the Honduran students’ scholarships would last until the end of the current term, and then they would be provided with one-way tickets home.

The move leaves Taiwan with just 13 formal allies, mostly poor and developing countries in Central America, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

In its own statement on Monday, the conservative National Party pledged to restore ties with Taiwan if it can retake the Honduran presidency in 2026.

“We will do everything possible to restore relations with our brothers and sisters in the Republic of Taiwan,” he said, vowing to enshrine allegiance to Taiwan in the country’s constitution.

Reporting by Gustavo Palencia; Additional reporting by Sarah Morland and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Edited by Stephen Eisenhammer, Josie Kao, and Sandra Maler

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