After confirming that it will receive more than 2 million doses of Neocon pneumonia vaccine from India and other sources, the president of Paraguay, Taiwan’s only diplomatic partner in South America, said that Paraguay is willing to negotiate directly with Chinese manufacturers for the purchase of the vaccine, but will not accept any form of “blackmail” in exchange for the vaccine for diplomatic relations.
In an interview at the presidential palace on Tuesday (April 20), Abdo said that Paraguay has already signed a contract with India to buy 2 million doses of the new crown vaccine and is confident that it will receive 100,000 doses of the vaccine from India next week, in addition to the promise that Paraguay will receive 134,000 doses of the vaccine from COVAX by the end of April. will have a certain number of vaccines to advance the vaccination process.
No diplomatic blackmail on vaccines
But Abdo also stressed that Paraguay does not accept any “blackmail” involving vaccine procurement and diplomatic conditions. In a tweet, he posted this statement: “We have no problem buying vaccines from anywhere. However, we will not accept any blackmail for the purchase of vaccines. We ask and remain open to dealing directly with Chinese manufacturers without conditions of any kind involving our diplomatic relations.”
Retweeting Abdo’s tweet, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said, “We appreciate Abdo’s courageous and principled stance on maintaining Paraguay’s right to an independent foreign policy. No country should be blackmailed or bullied in order to advance a political agenda, especially when it comes to saving lives.”
For some time, Paraguayans have been protesting in the streets over their dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of the New Guinea epidemic, and in a phone call with Abdo in mid-March, Secretary of State Blinken expressed his willingness to assist the Paraguayan people affected by the epidemic and also urged Paraguay to “work with regional and global democratic partners, including Taiwan,” to overcome the epidemic’s The meeting was held on March 14.
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Wu Chiu-sup said late last month in the Legislative Yuan that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a close grasp of the Chinese vaccine factory’s attempt to cut off diplomatic relations between Paraguay and Taiwan as a condition for obtaining the vaccine, and that Taiwan had coordinated with the United States and India to provide Paraguayan vaccine.
Wu said the Paraguayan government “knows that behind the local turmoil there is the shadow of China, Chinese funding and Chinese pipelines, and they have a deep hatred for China.”
Authoritarian government leads vaccine diplomacy
Benjamin Gedan, deputy director of the Latin America Program at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., told the Canadian Press over the weekend that China’s approach is one of vaccine diplomacy, with China providing $1 billion in bilateral loans to Latin America but refusing to provide the New Crown pneumonia vaccine to Paraguay because it recognizes Taiwan.
“There are reports from the Paraguayan foreign ministry that intermediaries in the Chinese government have made it clear that Paraguay will not get the Chinese vaccine if it does not change its position on Taiwan.” Ge Dan said authoritarian governments, including China and Russia, have taken the lead in vaccine diplomacy over the past few months, and “it is never encouraging to see the world’s largest dictatorship taking advantage of this diplomatic opportunity.”
Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ou Jiang-an said Wednesday that Taiwan is happy to see Paraguay successfully obtaining the required New Crown pneumonia vaccine one after another under the efforts of the country’s government and all parties, “In the face of the spreading epidemic, vaccine acquisition is not only a public health issue, but also a humanitarian issue; matters concerning the lives and health of people in all countries should not have been reduced to a tool for political manipulation.”
She said that not only does the Paraguayan government not accept any “diplomatic blackmail” for vaccines, but Taiwan also strongly opposes “any provision of vaccines with implied strings attached as a means to undermine the Taiwan-Pakistan friendship.”
Paraguay’s foreign minister pressures U.S. and Taiwan
The New York Times reported last week that the difficulties in obtaining the vaccine have put pressure on Paraguay to turn diplomatic, and Paraguayan Foreign Minister Euclides Acevedo threw light on the prospect of a possible diplomatic shift as he sought to pressure Taiwan and the United States to obtain the vaccine, saying in a televised interview last month that Beijing had made clear its interest in establishing diplomatic relations with Paraguay.
“What good does it do us if brotherhood makes us suffer from respiratory failure?” Acevedo said, “I think our strategic partners, including the United States and Taiwan, have to react.”
At a press briefing Tuesday, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for Latin America and the Caribbean Yu Da㵢 also commented on the question of whether Paraguay had taken a diplomatic turn over the New Crown vaccine, saying that Paraguay had indeed previously had problems with slow progress in obtaining the vaccine “when the situation was urgent and caused turmoil in the government of the country.” However, with the assistance of all parties, the vaccines provided to Paraguay have arrived one after another, and Paraguay has continued to procure the relevant vaccines.
Taiwan and Paraguay have solid diplomatic relations
He said that some foreign media reports are based on the previous situation, leading the Taiwanese people to think that there are hidden worries about endangering the diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Paraguay, “and even some people who are interested in expecting the occurrence of unstable diplomatic relations”, he said. The rumor that Taiwan and Paraguay are facing a break in diplomatic relations is definitely not true.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Paraguay clarified in a statement on March 22 that media reports of intermediaries claiming to represent the People’s Republic of China or Chinese manufacturers have demanded that Paraguay must “sever relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan)” in order to purchase the new vaccine have not been confirmed, and that this condition This condition is “not justified” because even though Paraguay does not have diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, the two sides maintain normal trade relations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, when asked if she could confirm this, said about Paraguay, “This is typical malicious disinformation. I know that some people in Taiwan have made some small moves behind the scenes” and she wanted to “tell” some people in Taiwan not to engage in political manipulation and disinformation and slander, because it is all in vain.
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