The President of Paraguay said on Tuesday April 20 that he was prepared to buy vaccines from China but warned that he would
not
accept
"any form of blackmail"
, referring to his ties with Taiwan.
“We have no problem buying anywhere.
Now we are not going to accept any form of blackmail for the purchase of vaccines, but we ask and are ready to open direct relations with factories in China, without any conditions concerning our diplomatic relations
,
”
Mario Abdo Benitez said on Tuesday. of a press conference.
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Paraguay is one of the 15 countries in the world, the only one in South America, which still recognizes Taipei and not Beijing.
China still considers Taiwan as part of its territory which is destined to return to its fold, even if the island has been following its own destiny since 1949. The Chinese government continues to work for the international isolation of Taiwan, by relentlessly trying to attract the island's allies to him.
On April 7, the head of Taiwanese diplomacy had already accused China of taking advantage of the pandemic to try to attract Paraguay to it by promising vaccines in return.
"This is a period when
China's
'vaccine diplomacy'
is fully expressed around the world, and particularly in Latin and Central America
,
"
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said.
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Paraguay, the continent's most backward country in terms of vaccination, has so far acquired 183,000 doses of vaccines, mainly in the form of donations, including 20,000 Chinese Sinovac vaccines offered by Chile.
"We are continuing to advance on the possibility of having as many vaccines as possible as soon as possible and we will explore all markets,"
assured the Paraguayan president. Vaccination has so far been limited to intensive care medical personnel and people over the age of 85, as Paraguay, like all Latin American countries, faces a powerful second wave of contamination that is saturating its care services.
