The Taiwanese Foreign ministry has vowed international legal proceedings against the Nicaraguan Government for seizing its embassy and making plans to hand it over to China. Taiwan has also accused Nicaragua of violating standard principles and procedures in its treatment of the former’s diplomats.
Nicaragua was one of the few states left internationally which had recognised the sovereignty of the democratic and self-governing island nation. Officials from Nicaragua, led by the authoritarian President Daniel Ortega, had signed a joint communique on December 10 on the resumption of diplomatic relations with China thereby ending its diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
“The Government of the Republic of Nicaragua declares that it recognizes that… in the world there is only one China. The People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government that represents all China, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory,” the statement by Nicaragua read. It is the ninth country to have broken diplomatic relations with Taiwan since current President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016.
Prior to leaving the country, the Taiwanese diplomats had planned to donate the building, which hosted the embassy, to the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Managua as a gesture of cultural solidarity. But the government officials termed any such donation as invalid thereby “seizing” the properties and handing it over to the Chinese officials.
This is not the first time President Ortega has undertaken such a diplomatic step vis-à-vis Taiwan. He had shown solidarity with respect to Chinese territorial claims even before by derecognising Taiwanese sovereignty during his first term in the office from 1985-1990.
The Republic of Nicaragua had established diplomatic relations with Taiwan (erstwhile Republic of China led by Kuomintang/ Nationalist Party) in 1930 which ended abruptly in 1985. They were later restored in 1990 by President Violeta Chamorro which then lasted up until 2021.
President Ortega, who is said to have an authoritarian style of governance, is an international pariah especially after he won his fourth term in the recently held presidential elections in November 2021 which were termed compromised and rigged. President Joe Biden had signed the Reinforcing Nicaragua’s Adherence to Conditions for Electoral Reform Act (“the RENACER Act”) into law which paved the way for new sanctions against the country. Commentators argue that such a diplomatic step by Nicaragua was taken to secure loans, Lines of Credit (LoCs) and other economic incentives from China as multilateral financial agencies refuse to issue fresh loans or restructure old ones especially after the sanctions.
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Taiwan now has full diplomatic relations with only 14 sovereign states including the three in Central America, namely Honduras, Guatemala and Carribean island Belize.
