El Salvador’s president-elect to reassess ties with Beijing less than year after diplomatic switch from Taipei
- New Central American government will decide ‘what is best for nation, not one political party’
- Analyst thinks Trump’s antipathy to El Salvador may play in China’s favour
El Salvador’s president-elect will assess his country’s diplomatic relations with China, a member of his team said, less than a year after the government abandoned Taipei for Beijing.
During the 2019 election campaign, Niyab Bukele – who emerged victorious at the polls on Sunday – was critical of El Salvador’s relationship with Beijing.
Federico Anliker, a member of Bukele’s inner circle and secretary general of his centre-right New Ideas party, said the incoming administration would look at why the outgoing government of Salvador Sánchez Cerén had chosen to build a relationship with Beijing.
“With the issue of China, China-Taiwan relations, we have to study them and put them in the balance – what is best for the nation, not what is best for a political party, as the [Cerén government] did,” Anliker told Salvadoran media on Thursday
“We were not consulted, nor did they give us the reasons [for establishing] relations with China. Now, we have to investigate in detail.”
While Bukele voiced scepticism about his country’s ties to Beijing during his election campaign, he said a review “will not necessarily break relations”.