India denies it midwifed vaccine supplies on Taiwan’s request

Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 8

After China was displeased with the media commentary around the exchange of condolences earlier this week between India and Taiwan, Taipei claimed there was another instance of close bonding between the two countries.

However, New Delhi has contradicted the claim by Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu that India shipped one lakh doses on its request and will again send a similar quantity to Paraguay.

“I would like to confirm that no third party was involved,’’ said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.

According to Wu, China was pressurising the Latin American country to accept urgently-required vaccine doses only if it ended diplomatic recognition of Taiwan.

But Bagchi said India is opening an embassy in Paraguay and during a conversation between the foreign ministers, the demand for vaccines was raised. Accordingly, India sent one lakh doses of vaccines to Paraguay, he added.

Taiwan’s foreign minister had said, “In the last few weeks, we have been speaking to like-minded countries, and India fortunately has been able to provide some vaccines to Paraguay,” Wu disclosed.

The government in Paraguay had needed urgent help as there had been street protests over its handling of the health crisis. India had sent the one lakh doses on March 26 as “gift’’.

“The most important trend is the Indian government who is willing to help, and the US who has decided they want to help, and I think this is going to relieve a lot of pressure for a lot of countries,’’ he said.

The nub of the problem is that under a grand bargain between the US and China in the 70s, it was agreed not to recognise Taiwan, a breakaway island-republic, as a country under what is known as the ‘One China’ principle.

But in order to keep leverage, the US ensured that some countries, most of them tiny island nations, continue recognising Taiwan as the real China. Beijing, on the other hand, entices these nations to give up its recognition of Taiwan in exchange for material benefits.

In a celebrated case in 2007, China successfully swung a Caribbean nation away from Taiwan by building a cricket stadium.

A couple of days back, India had condoled the victims of a train crash. This was followed by Taiwan expressing its condolences on the loss of life and injuries in the Chhattisgarh Maoist ambush. But the Chinese embassy here took umbrage to an editorial, which “seriously violated One-China principle and provoked China’s bottom line disregarding long-standing position of the Indian government.”

“China firmly opposes any country having diplomatic ties and making any form of official contact and exchanges with Taiwan. China’s red line on the Taiwan question cannot be challenged. On issues of right and wrong, there is no room for compromise,” said the spokesperson.

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