TAIPEI, Taiwan– President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, has thanked St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, for paying an official visit to the Asian country amid heightened tension across the Taiwan Strait.
On Monday, Gonsalves and Tsai attended meetings to discuss issues of mutual interest and witnessed the signing of a bilateral judicial cooperation agreement and a letter of intent for collaboration in higher education to deepen bilateral judicial and educational cooperation further Presidential Office said.
Gonsalves arrived in Taiwan on Sunday on what was expected to have been the final day of Chinese military live-fire drills near Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province.
However, since then, Beijing has announced a fresh set of drills, which experts say indicate what an attempt by China to take over Taiwan could look like.
China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as a part of its territory, is carrying out military drills in response to the visit to Taipei last week by Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, as part of a tour of Asia.
Tsai said Gonsalves’ visit deeply touched her. He was his 10th prime minister and the first since he was re-elected to a fifth consecutive term in November 2020, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported.
Shortly after arriving in Taiwan on Sunday, Gonsalves called on China to stop the military exercises, adding that China and Taiwan are “different legitimate political expressions of Chinese civilization,” and he expects that these differences can be resolved peacefully over time.
Before departing Kingstown, he said he would write to China asking it to cease its military aggression toward Taiwan. However, it is unclear whether the prime minister has dispatched such communication.
Tsai, who visited the Caribbean in 2019, described Gonsalves as a “close and dear friend of Taiwan.”
CNA quoted her as saying that since establishing diplomatic ties in 1981, Kingstown and Taipei have supported each other and have achieved much together, despite the constantly changing international landscape.
She noted that before his arrival here, Gonsalves said that the military drills would not prevent him from visiting his friends in Taiwan.
Tsai spoke following a military parade in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei to welcome Gonsalves and his delegation.
CNA said that after the military salute, Gonsalves delivered a speech in which he told Taiwan, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines are island nations that share common values related to “the protection and promotion of democracy and human rights.”
“We do not like it and do not support any powerful neighbor seeking to intimidate us or bully us…wherever there are differences, we must settle them peacefully in a civilized manner,” he said regarding the Chinese drills.
Gonsalves said the visit was meant to express his island’s solidarity with Taiwan and to work further to strengthen bilateral relations and secure peace, security, and prosperity for all.
He also thanked Taiwan for assisting the island after the April 2021 volcanic eruption and in combating the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
CNA said that while here, Prime Minister Gonsalves will sign agreements with Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice on mutual assistance and the transfer of prisoners and a letter of intent with the Ministry of Education to strengthen cooperation in higher education.
Gonsalves will also meet with Premier Us Tseng-change, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, and Chen Chi-Mai, mayor of Kaohsiung, a city in southern Taiwan, and visit the SVG Embassy in Taipei and the International Cooperation and Development Fund, MOFA said.
Gonsalves is expected to leave Taiwan on Friday. St. Vincent and the Grenadines is one of 14 countries that recognize Taiwan as a state separate from China, including four other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries
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