A foreign ministry official has said that Taiwan’s diplomatic ties with St Lucia have not been harmed by a visit to China by the country’s new prime minister.
Allen Chastanet became prime minister of the Caribbean nation in June. In August he made a visit to China, after which he came to Taiwan. At the time, he gave assurances that the visit to China was purely of a commercial nature and that he had no contact with government representatives.
The foreign ministry official said Castanet had taken the initiative before his trip to China to say that he would come to Taiwan to give an explanation. The prime minister had gone to China to seek investment in his country’s tourism industry, the official said.
The official said the explanation and other expressions of goodwill mean ties between Taiwan and its Caribbean ally have not been damaged as a result.
The move by Chastanet rang alarm bells at the time as St Lucia previously broke ties with Taiwan in 1997 before restoring relations in 2007. Last year the country opened an embassy in Taiwan, its first in Asia.