India helps Taiwan’s ally Paraguay to get vaccines after Beijing pressure

Name: Taiwanese Youtuber on quest to visit all allies on Taiwan’s shrinking list
Uploaded: 2021-04-07T07:36:55.000Z
Duration: 1 min 33 s
Description: Taiwanese Youtuber on quest to visit all allies on Taiwan’s shrinking list

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu says Beijing is ‘flexing its muscles’ with its vaccine diplomacy, in particular in South and Central America, where Taiwan has five allies

India has already shipped 100,000 doses to Paraguay and there will be another 100,000, he says

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People wait to receive a vaccine shot at a hospital in Asuncion, Paraguay. Photo: Bloomberg

Reuters

Published: 3:36pm, 7 Apr 2021Updated: 3:36pm, 7 Apr 2021

Taiwan worked with other democracies to help its diplomatic ally Paraguay get Covid-19 vaccines after Beijing put pressure on the South American country to ditch Taipei in exchange for shots, and India stepped in to help, Taiwan’s foreign minister said.

Taiwan has formal ties with only 15 countries, and Beijing, which asserts that the island does not have the right to diplomatic recognition, has stepped up efforts to coax them away.

Taiwan said last month it was helping Paraguay, its sole diplomatic ally in South America, buy Covid-19 vaccines after protests there over the government’s handling of the health crisis.

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Taiwanese Youtuber on quest to visit all allies on Taiwan’s shrinking list

Speaking on Wednesday, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said Beijing, which has been distributing in various places the vaccines it has developed, was “flexing its muscles” with its vaccine diplomacy, in particular in South and Central America, where Taiwan has five allies.

“If you look at those countries that are receiving the Chinese vaccines, whether it’s Brazil or Chile or El Salvador, I think it’s having lots of impact on our diplomatic allies,” he said.

In Paraguay, Beijing was “very active” in saying to the public that if Paraguay severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan they would get millions of doses of Chinese vaccines, which put pressure on Taiwan to help, Wu said.

“In the last few weeks, we have been speaking to like-minded countries, including Japan, the United States, India … and India fortunately has been able to provide some Covaxin vaccines to Paraguay,” he said, referring to a shot developed by India’s Bharat Biotech and a state research institute.

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