FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu: Taiwan said it received assurances from Tuvalu’s new prime minister Monday (Feb 26) that ties were “everlasting”, scotching rumours that the Pacific island nation was poised to flip alliances to Beijing.
Former attorney general Feleti Teo was named premier in a ceremony on Monday, a month after an election that put the Pacific Island nation’s recognition of Taiwan in question.
Tuvalu, with a population of just 11,000 is one of just 12 states that still have formal diplomatic relations with Taipei rather than Beijing.
During the election campaign, member of parliament and then-finance minister Seve Paeniu floated the idea that Tuvalu’s new government should review its Taiwan ties.
That set off frenzied speculation about a looming shift in policy, causing the election to be closely watched from the United States to China.
Andrew Lin, Taiwan’s ambassador to Tuvalu, tried to end that speculation.
Lin told AFP that he had spoken to Teo and government MPs on Monday and received assurances “that the relationship between Taiwan and Tuvalu is firm, rock solid, durable and everlasting.”
“I was invited to attend a lunch with all the MPs and the newly elected PM. I had conversations with all of them and had assurances from all of them,” he said.
Teo, a former attorney general, was most recently the head of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission.
He is the first Tuvaluan prime minister to be nominated unopposed and will be inaugurated later this week, according to lawmaker Simon Kofe.