Sydney (Australia), February 26 (EFE).- The Parliament of Tuvalu, one of the few countries that recognizes Taiwan, elected Feleti Teo as prime minister this Monday, in the midst of the geopolitical competition between China and the United States in the Pacific region.
“This is the first time in our history that a prime minister was nominated without opposition,” Tuvalu legislator and former Minister of Climate Change and Foreign Affairs Simon Kofe announced today in a message on X, adding that Teo and the Members of his Cabinet will take office this week.
Feleti Teo, 61 years old and who was elected today in a session in the Parliament of Tuvalu, with 16 legislators, was the first attorney general of Tuvaluan origin in his country, as well as served as executive director of the so-called Tuna Commission of the Peaceful.
Teo will succeed Kausea Natano, who defended a diplomatic stance favorable to the Taipei Executive and lost her seat during the general elections held in the small Pacific nation on January 26.
The new president has yet to comment on the position of his Executive regarding his international policy.
These elections were held under the watchful eye of Taiwan, China and the United States, among other countries, due to the strategic competition in the Pacific, which intensified when the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with Beijing in 2022 negotiated in an opaque manner and made fear the expansion of the Asian giant in the region.
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Tuvalu is one of the twelve countries in the world that maintain official diplomatic ties with Taiwan, in addition to Guatemala, Paraguay, the Marshall Islands and Vatican City.
Recognizing the Taipei Government means not maintaining diplomatic relations with China, since the Asian giant does not recognize the independence of the self-governed island and classifies it as a rebel province and part of its territory.
Eleven days before the elections in Tuvalu, Nauru, a republic in the South Pacific, unexpectedly announced the severing of its ties with Taiwan and turned its international policy towards Beijing, as happened in 2019 in the island states of Kiribati and the Solomon Islands.
Tuvalu, a remote Pacific nation with a population of more than 11,000 spread across four coral islands and five atolls, lacks a large-scale economy and derives its income primarily from fishing, as well as being heavily dependent on international aid, including from Australia.
By: EFE
The post Tuvalu, a country allied to Taiwan in the Pacific, elects Feleti Teo as prime minister appeared first on Minuto30.
2024-02-26 06:06:58
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