Taiwan offers Covid-19 vaccine help to ally Paraguay after street protests
- Offer follows urging of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for Paraguayan government to work with Taipei on pandemic handling
- The South American country is one of the self-ruled island’s few remaining diplomatic allies
Thousands of Paraguayans protested in the capital Asuncion over the lack of medicine and intensive care beds amid a spike in coronavirus cases and calls to impeach President Mario Abdo.
In a statement late on Tuesday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said Taiwan was extending a helping hand to Paraguay at a time when it was facing a public health crisis and unable to obtain enough vaccines.
“Based on the friendship between Taiwan and Paraguay, under the existing bilateral cooperation framework, we are assisting Paraguay to negotiate and obtain vaccines through different channels,” she said.
On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Paraguay to work with Taiwan to overcome the pandemic. The US has expressed concern at Beijing’s efforts to win over Taiwan’s remaining allies and expand Chinese influence, especially in Latin America, which Washington traditionally views as its backyard.
Biden team says it is keeping one-China policy regarding Taiwan
Taiwan’s first vaccines – 117,000 doses of the AstraZeneca shots – arrived on the island earlier this month, but have yet to start being administered.
In December, Taiwan said it had agreed to buy almost 20 million vaccine doses, including 10 million from AstraZeneca.
Ou said the help they were offering Paraguay “had nothing to do” with the AstraZeneca vaccines Taiwan had bought.
