TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister will attend a meeting of Pacific island leaders in Tonga this week, the foreign ministry said on Sunday, as China and the United States vie for influence in the region.
The Pacific is also an area of competition between Taipei and Beijing, with China working to reduce the number of countries that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which China claims. Three countries—Palau, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands—have maintained relations with Taiwan.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Vice Foreign Minister Tien Chung-kuang will hold a summit with its three Pacific allies to strengthen its partnership with them and other “like-minded countries,” a reference to Western democracies such as the United States and Australia.
In January, shortly after Tsai Ing-wen won election as Taiwan’s new president, Nauru switched its relations from Taipei to Beijing, in what the Taiwanese government described as part of an ongoing Chinese pressure campaign.
In 2018, Nauru, then an ally of Taiwan, criticized China for “impudent” for speaking out of turn at the Pacific Islands Forum. Nauru had previously recognized China, from 2002 to 2005.
Taiwan has participated in the forum since 1993 as a development partner under the name “Taiwan/Republic of China”. The Republic of China is the official name of Taiwan.
China says democratically-ruled Taiwan is one of its provinces and has no right to state-to-state relations, a position strongly disputed by the government in Taipei.
Climate change and security are expected to dominate discussions at a meeting of 18 Pacific leaders this week, which will also be attended by US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell.
There were diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Tonga from 1972 until 1998 when the country switched its recognition to Beijing and severed relations with Taipei.
Now there are only 12 countries that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
(This story has been corrected to correct spelling and capitalization of the word “Forum of the Islands” in the title.)