FM Resigns After Burkina Faso Ditches Taipei

The Foreign Minister in Taiwan, Joseph Wu, on Thursday tendered his resignation after Burkina Faso announced it was breaking diplomatic ties with Taipei.

"As a government official, I must be responsible for policies, and I have verbally tendered my resignation to the president," Wu told a press conference.

Wu added that Taipei was cutting relations with Burkina Faso "to safeguard our sovereignty and dignity" and halting bilateral aid and cooperation programmes.

Burkina Faso is the second country to dump Taipei within weeks after after Dominican Republic switched recognition to Beijing earlier this month, leaving Taipei with only 18 diplomatic allies around the world.

The move also left Taipei with only one ally in Africa -- eSwatini (formerly Swaziland). It was the fourth ally Taipei lost since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016.

It was not immediately clear if Burkina Faso and China would establish diplomatic relations but Wu said it would only be "sooner or later" and that "everyone knows China is the only factor".

"Why China chose now to steal our ally, everyone can see although we couldn't go into the WHA (World Health Assembly), but we are developing deeper relations with more and more like-minded countries. I believe China can see this," he said.

Wu's comments came after the landlocked west African state said earlier on Thursday that it was breaking diplomatic ties with Taipei.

"The Burkina government decided today to break off its diplomatic relationship with Taiwan," Foreign Minister Alpha Barry said, in an announcement that follows a string of similar moves by African states since 2000.

"Since 1994, Burkina Faso has had cooperation relations with Taiwan," Barry said in a statement.

"But today, changes in the world, the current socio-economic challenges facing our country and our region call on us to reconsider our position."

Relations between Taiwan and the mainland have worsened since Beijing-sceptic Tsai came to power as her government refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of "one China."

According to some reports, last year Beijing allegedly offered US$50 billion to Burkina Faso to establish relations but the country turned it down.

Tsai dropped a plan to visit Burkina Faso in April during her first trip to Africa since taking office after its president was unable to receive her, citing scheduling conflicts.

Wu said Taipei already felt "a little unease" at that time. (AFP)