The foreign ministry has expressed concern at Sao Tome President Manuel Pinto da Costa’s planned trip to Mainland China.
Sao Tome and Principe is one of Taiwan’s three diplomatic allies in Africa. The visit is sensitive because China has convinced a number of allies to sever relations with Taiwan over the past two decades.
The foreign ministry said Friday that it has instructed Taiwan’s embassy in Sao Tome and Principe to express Taiwan’s displeasure at Pinto da Costa’s visit to China. The ministry will also meet with Sao Tome and Principe’s ambassador to Taiwan and ask him to relay Taiwan’s concern about the visit.
President Pinto da Costa has said that his trip to China will be an unofficial, private visit aimed to attract investment for a planned deep water port in Sao Tome and Principe. Pinto da Costa sent a letter to President Ma Ying-jeou on Wednesday saying that he still plans to visit Taiwan in his official capacity as president either at the end of 2014 or early in 2015.
The foreign ministry says that a visit to China by an allied nation’s head of state is highly sensitive, even if the visit is in an unofficial capacity. The ministry has urged the government of Sao Tome and Principe to value its longstanding friendship with Taiwan and asked that no similar incidents take place in the future to avoid damaging bilateral ties.