On her way to Central America, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen stopped in New York City from March 29-31 and met with US senators who voiced their support for greater participation for Taiwan in international forums.
Author
Manoj Kumar Panigrahi, Assistant Professor, Jindal School of International Affairs, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
Summary
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen conducted two “transit” stops at the United States during her visit to a few of the island nation’s diplomatic allies, Guatemala and Belize, in Central America from March 29 to April 7. Tsai’s transit period caught major headlines and reflected on Tsai’s continuous policy to interact with foreign lawmakers. Preceding President Tsai’s visit to the partners in the region, Honduras recalled its diplomatic relationship with Taiwan and announced switching the relation to China. However, the switch of diplomatic ties is not linked to the Tsai visit. Honduras’ switch brought down Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to only 13.
On her way to Central America, Tsai stopped in New York City from March 29-31. During this time, Tsai met with US senators who voiced their support for greater participation for Taiwan in international forums, as well as other officials from Taiwan’s diplomatic allies of Eswatini and the Marshall Islands. On her return, Tsai stopped in Los Angeles from April 4-6. The second leg of Tsai’s transit irked China when Kevin McCarthy, the US House of Representatives Speaker, met with Tsai. During the joint remarks by the two Tsai warned of “democracy being under threat”, while McCarthy reiterated the “friendship between the people of both nations being of profound importance, and it is important to maintain economic freedom, peace, and regional stability”.
Such “transit diplomacy” is one way Taiwan’s leadership gets to interact with leaders in the US and the Taiwanese diaspora. In the past, such transit visits did cause a stir in cross-strait and US-China relations.
Published in: The Daily Guardian
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