MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st December, 2021) The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry condemned on Thursday the Nicaraguan authorities which seized the diplomatic assets from the embassy of Taiwan in the Latin American country after the nations terminated diplomatic relations on December 10.
The rupture of relations was prompted by Nicaragua's statement about Taiwan being an integral part of China.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) strongly condemns Nicaragua's dictatorial regime for unlawfully exercising state power to interfere in Taiwan's legal transference of diplomatic property and to encroach upon the property in serious contravention of international law," the ministry said in a statement.
According to the foreign ministry, after the relations were severed, Taiwan intended to hand over its embassy's assets to a third country according to international law, but Nicaragua rejected the initiative. Then Taiwan decided to sell the property to the Catholic Church in Nicaragua.
The ministry went on to site the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as stipulating that if countries decided to terminate their diplomatic relations, they must respect the premises and properties of each other.
Taiwan and Nicaragua established relations in 1930 when the island was a part of the Japanese Empire. The relations were broken off when Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega came to power and established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1985. Nicaragua-Taiwan relations were restored when Ortega's successor Violeta Barrios de Chamorro re-recognized Taiwan and cut relations with China. Ortega returned to power in 2007 and has since ruled the country, starting his fourth consecutive term in 2021.
