Unlikely Taiwan's liaison office in Pretoria will meet govt deadline to move out
Deputy Minister of International Relations, Alvin Botes told Parliament the office said logistical and administrative matters were delaying its relocation.
Office workplace
CAPE TOWN - It appears unlikely Taiwan’s liaison office in Pretoria will meet the government’s deadline to move out of Pretoria by the end of March.
The Deputy Minister of International Relations, Alvin Botes, told Parliament the office said logistical and administrative matters were delaying its relocation.
The department ordered Taiwan out of the diplomatic area last October, in a move seen to be appeasing its ally, China.
Asked by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) what’s being done to speed up the relocation of Taiwan’s diplomatic office, Botes said from engagements with the office, it had indicated it would struggle to meet the six-month deadline.
Botes dismissed suggestions from the Freedom Front Plus’s Heloise Denner that South Africa was allowing itself to be “bullied” by China in forcing the office to move.
He said the instruction was in line with foreign policy in recognising one China.
Botes has also accused Taiwan of being dishonest about the request to relocate.
“They are sending what we characterise as distorted missives to senators and house of representatives in Washington DC where they are actually problematising, politically, the decision of the South African Cabinet.”
South Africa severed formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1997.
Once moved, its liaison office is expected to be renamed a trade office.