Taipei - Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou is expected to visit allies Paraguay and the Dominican Republic in mid-August to cement ties, a well-placed government source said Sunday. "Under the initial plan, President Ma will attend the inaugural ceremonies of the newly elected presidents in Paraguay on August 15 and in the Dominican Republic on August 16," the source said on condition of anonymity.
The source said Ma tentatively planned to leave Taiwan on August 12 for a nine-day visit by way of the US. The foreign ministry is seeking US agreement for Ma to transit through New York, and if that could not be possible, Ma is expected to make stopovers in Los Angeles and San Francisco on his way to and back from Latin America.
The source did not rule out the possibility that Ma would visit other Latin American allies during his planned trip.
It would be Ma's first overseas trip since he was inaugurated as the island's leader in May.
Taiwan has maintained official ties with Paraguay and the Dominican Republic, which are among the 23 diplomatic allies that recognize Taipei over Beijing, a rival of the island since they split at the end of a 1949 civil war.
Ma, of the China-friendly Nationalist Party or Kuomintang who has adopted a policy to engage China and improve relations since he took office in May, has called for a diplomatic truce between Taiwan and China.
Under his proposal, Taiwan, which would cement ties with its existing 23 allies, would not actively seek to establish formal ties with other countries, but China should also refrain from wooing away the island's existing allies in order to build mutual trust to pave the way for cross-strait reconciliation.
His proposal, however, has been criticized by the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which governed Taiwan for eight years, as sheer "surrenderism."
China, which maintains official ties with over 170 countries, has been known for its previous efforts to woo away Taiwan's allies and isolate the island diplomatically.
