At Mayan ruins, Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen and Guatemala’s Alejandro Giammattei reaffirm ties
- Tsai Ing-wen and Alejandro Giammattei vowed to maintain strong ties in the face of a diplomatic offensive by China
- Tsai’s visit, which will also take her to Belize, comes days after neighbouring Honduras broke diplomatic relations with Taipei to link up with Beijing
The assembled dignitaries “witness today the strengthening of the friendship between our nations,” Guatemalan deputy culture minister Jenny Barrios said.
The two presidents walked to a nearby esplanade and shook hands for a symbolic official photo while a bonfire lit during a Mayan dance ceremony burned. They also witnessed a traditional ball game played in Mayan times.
In a meeting with Giammattei on Friday night, Tsai thanked him for his support last year when China conducted military manoeuvres near the island.
She also highlighted cooperation with Guatemala, one of only 13 diplomatic allies the self-governing island has in the world, mostly small nations in the Caribbean, the Pacific and Latin America.
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Speaking to the media with Tsai at his side, Giammattei called Taiwan “the one and only true China.”
“China is a market of more than one billion people, and it would be in the interest of some Guatemalan sectors to export and import products from China,” sociologist and political analyst Miguel Angel Sandoval told Agence France-Presse.
On Sunday, Tsai will visit a new hospital in the city of Chimaltenango, in western Guatemala, built with a US$22 million donation from Taipei.
Tsai will then leave for Belize, where she is to meet Prime Minister John Briceno on Monday and depart on Tuesday.