TAIPEI/SYDNEY (Reuters) -Taiwan said it welcomed a senior Fijian diplomat this week who met with Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim, a highly unusual trip given the Pacific island state only has formal relations with Beijing, which decries any international exchanges with Taipei.
Taiwan’s presidential office said late on Wednesday that Filipo Tarakinikini, Fiji’s permanent representative to the United Nations – of which Taiwan is not a member – had met Hsiao as part of a delegation of other UN ambassadors, including from the Marshal Islands and Paraguay which are Taiwanese allies.
Hsiao expressed “heartfelt thanks to the permanent representatives, as friends of Taiwan, for their longstanding support and assistance, which have helped Taiwan play a meaningful role in the international system, especially within the United Nations system,” the office cited her as saying.
Tarakinikini also met and had dinner with Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung, the foreign ministry said in a separate statement.
Tarakinikini, Fiji’s foreign ministry and China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and strongly objects to any diplomatic interactions with Taipei, especially by countries with which Beijing has official relations.
Taiwan says it has a right to engage with other countries, and rejects Beijing’s territorial claims. China says Taiwan is merely one of its provinces.
In July, Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said his country was opposed to China setting up a military base in the Pacific Islands, adding that it did not need such a base to project power, as shown by an intercontinental ballistic missile test last year in the region.
Strategically placed between the United States and Asia, the Pacific Islands are a focus of rivalry between Washington and Beijing for security ties.
Of the 12 countries with formal ties to Taiwan, three are Pacific islands states – Palau, Tuvalu and the Marshal Islands.
Taiwan does, however, maintain a de facto embassy in Fiji. In 2020, it said one of its diplomats was hospitalised in Fiji after two Chinese diplomats attempted to enter a reception and gather information on attendees. China denied the account.
In 2005, then-Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian visited Fiji on a transit stop during a Pacific tour, though he did not meet with government officials.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Kirsty Needham; Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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