《TAIPEI TIMES》 Ministry welcomes support at ASEAN

ORTEGA SWITCH: The Nicaraguan government’s proposal to replace Taiwan with China as an observer at PARLACEN is a move to appease Beijing, the ministry said

By Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked the US, the EU, Japan and South Korea for underlining the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and related events in Jakarta last week.

The 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Post Ministerial Conference and other meetings were held from Tuesday to Friday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeatedly underscored the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, including during a meeting with Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Wang Yi （王毅） and at the US-ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the ministry said in a news release.

At a news conference in Jakarta on Friday, Blinken expressed the US’ concern about China’s increasing assertiveness in the South and East China seas and in the Taiwan Strait.

The US remains committed to “upholding freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea,” he said.

“The United States also seeks to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which is in the interest of all nations” and opposes unilateral changes to the “status quo” by either side, he added.

Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi and South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin voiced concerns over the situation in the Taiwan Strait and stressed the importance of cross-strait peace and stability during their separate meetings with Wang in Jakarta, the ministry said.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell on Friday wrote on Twitter that he and Wang discussed “preserving stability and the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.”

Borrell echoed a European Council report published on June 30, which said that the EU “is concerned about growing tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” the ministry said.

The concerns voiced by these leaders demonstrate that peace in the Taiwan Strait has become the consensus among like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific region, it said.

Taiwan would continue to work with like-minded partners to deepen relations and cooperation, as well as safeguard peace, stability and prosperity in the Taiwan Strait, it added.

In other news, the ministry yesterday said that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s administration was attempting to curry favor with Beijing by planning to propose to replace the Legislative Yuan with the Chinese National People’s Congress as an observer in the Central American Parliament （PARLACEN）.

In April last year, then-PARLACEN president Guillermo Daniel Ortega Reyes of Nicaragua issued a statement, which had not been discussed by the parliament, saying that there was only “one China,” the ministry said.

By planning to rescind Taiwan’s observer status, Nicaragua was again attempting to placate China in hopes of obtaining economic aid and political support to solve its domestic economic woes, the ministry said.

It said that Beijing’s use of its “one China” principle to prevent Taiwan’s participation in international organizations was disgusting behavior that lacked respect for international organization mechanisms.

The ministry called on Ortega to restore Nicaragua’s democratic constitutional system as soon as possible to win international support instead of blindly appeasing Beijing.

Additional reporting by CNA

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES