On Wednesday, 15 January, St. Vincent Opposition MP St. Clair Leacock articulated that any visit by Taiwan President Lai Ching-te to St. Vincent this year would be interpreted by him as an intrusion into the political affairs of SVG, particularly given that 2025 is an election year.
While there has been no formal declaration regarding a visit from Taiwan’s president to SVG, it is noteworthy that before Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves visited the Southeast Asian country in 2024, he said he plans to invite the new president of Taiwan, Lai Ching-te, to make an official visit to St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) in 2025.
Leacock, comments came as he articulated the significance of Taiwan’s contribution to the capital programs in St. Vincent for 2025 and the broader implications thereof.
“I’m not squaring off or looking for issues with anyone else, nor is the whole party, because I think that’s inclusive of the fact that the president of Taiwan may be here sometime this year. I think I heard that last year. If the president of Taiwan came to St. Vincent in the middle of this year, I would construe it to be interference in the politics of St. Vincent and the Grenadines since it is an electoral year”.
“I said my interpretation of his presence here in an election year would be construed by me. I am entitled to an opinion, as interference into the political affairs of a sovereign state”.
Leacock, responding to crosstalk from a government MP, stated:
“And you don’t jump too high and jump off a horse because you can’t have it both ways. Because when we had Taiwan out of the international airport receiving in India, we pulled them out of the line. So today we want them; the next day we don’t want them, and we push them and pull them here according to ideology and ideology”.
In 2024, Gonsalves said that the relationship of the two countries has been a very strategic one based on clear principles and a genuine love for each other.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, he said, does not practice a foreign policy with a “for sale” sign, metaphorically, in its diplomatic window. That’s why blandishments, from whatever source, trouble it not, he said.
