Honduras and China announced this Sunday the establishment of diplomatic relations, hours after the Central American country made official the rupture of those it had maintained with Taiwan since 1941.
The foreign ministers of Honduras, Eduardo Reina, and China, Qin Gang, signed in Beijing a “Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Honduras” that formalizes the ties between the two nations.
The step takes place eleven days after Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced her intention to establish ties with the Asian giant.
The statement indicates that the opening of relations is effective from the day it is signed and that the two countries agree to “develop friendly relations on the basis of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-aggression, non-interference in internal affairs, equality, mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence”.
“The Government of Honduras recognizes that there is only one China in the world, that the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the only government that legally represents China and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of its territory,” it continues.
According to the text, Honduras “must cut ‘diplomatic relations’ with Taiwan as of this day and undertakes not to develop any kind of official relations or exchanges” with the island.
The signing marked the first public appearance in China by the Honduran foreign minister, who traveled to Beijing three days ago to negotiate the opening of diplomatic ties with the Asian country, a trip to which Taiwan responded by withdrawing its ambassador to that country.
Hours before, the Tegucigalpa Executive announced that “it has communicated to Taiwan the decision to break diplomatic relations between the two.”
After the official act, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that “Honduras is an important country in Central America” ??and considered its decision “a wise option in line with the global trend and supported by the peoples.”
“China highly appreciates this decision” and “is willing to strengthen, based on the five principles of peaceful coexistence, friendly cooperation in various areas with Honduras, for the benefit of both countries and peoples,” it added.
Before her inauguration as president of Honduras, on January 27, 2022, Xiomara Castro had said that it was not on her agenda to open relations with China.
The Honduran decision has been marked in recent days by controversy, since Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu declared that the Central American country “asked a high price” for maintaining diplomatic ties with Taipei.
Shortly after, Honduran Vice Foreign Minister Tony García confirmed that his country had asked the self-governing island for 2 billion dollars to restructure its external debt and, according to unofficial versions, also requested a hospital.
Honduras and Taiwan maintained a relationship of military, educational, and economic cooperation, and the island financed technical and agricultural aid projects and also hosted hundreds of Honduran scholarship holders at its universities.
The rupture of relations with Taiwan by Honduras reduces to 13 the number of countries with which Taipei maintains official diplomatic relations and makes the Central American nation the ninth country -and the fifth Latin American- that since 2016 cuts with the island to establish ties with Chinese.
Honduras joined its neighbors Panama, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, which in recent years have broken relations with the island in favor of the People’s Republic of China, a decision that keeps Hondurans divided.
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