Guatemala president reaffirms support for 'brothers' in Taiwan
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Guatemala, one of Taiwan's few remaining diplomatic allies, reaffirmed its support for the island on Thursday during a visit by President Bernardo Arevalo, who said his people will walk together with their "brothers" in Taiwan.
Guatemala is one of only 12 countries to retain formal ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan and Beijing has been stepping up its campaign to win those nations over to its side. Taiwan says it has every right to forge state-to-state relations and Beijing has no right to interfere.
Arevalo, on his first trip to Taiwan since taking office last year, said at a welcome ceremony with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te that the two sides were firm friends and "brotherly peoples".
"We thank our ally for the support we have always received over these more than 90 years. We reaffirm the support of the Republic of Guatemala for the Republic of China, Taiwan," he said at the presidential office, referring to the island's formal name.
"On behalf of the people of Guatemala, I extend our hand to the people of Taiwan with the confidence that we will walk together along the path toward shared well-being, which we will make more profound and more comprehensive today."
Arevalo is being accompanied by his foreign and economics ministers.
Lai, standing next to Arevalo, said Taiwan and Guatemala will keep deepening their cooperation
"Although our two countries are geographically distant but the ideals and values of the two peoples are closely intertwined," he said.
The United States has been concerned about China's efforts to snatch away Taiwan's allies, especially in Latin America.
In February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised Guatemala's relations with Taiwan while on a visit to the country, saying the United States would help support it.
In 2023, Taiwan's then-president, Tsai Ing-wen, went to Guatemala a week after neighbouring Honduras severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in favour of Beijing.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Trump's trade talk delegation is set to face off with China's negotiators in London. Here is what's at stake.
Three top Trump administration economic officials will face off against Chinese negotiators in a renewed effort to break the US-China trade deadlock. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will be meeting China's delegation in London on Monday. "The meeting should go very well," President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post announcing the talks. This coming meeting will be the first official talk between the two countries since they mutually lowered tariffs in a temporary truce on May 12, after talks in Geneva. The renewed talks follow a 90-minute phone call between Trump and China's leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, a rare direct conversation that Trump later described as "very good." According to Trump, the two leaders also agreed to visit each other in person, without providing more details in terms of a timeline. The Chinese Embassy of Washington did not respond to a request for who would be attending this negotiation from its side. The team they sent to Geneva consisted of Vice Premier He Lifeng, Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang, and Vice Finance Minister Liao Min. Notably, Li has a Master of Laws from the University of Hamburg in Germany and has been part of China's delegation to the World Trade Organization since 2021. International trade experts previously told Business Insider that much is at stake for both China and the US to strike a deal, or at the very least, continue the truce beyond August 12 when the 90-day tariff pause will expire. "The Trump administration made their job harder because the tariff policies they've implemented are costly to Americans and American companies, and therefore, the market doesn't like it," said Philip Luck, director of the CSIS Economics Program. "They are under a lot of pressure to do things fast." Meanwhile, a lawsuit that threatens to undo all of Trump's tariffs enacted under the IEEPA also looms over negotiations with China. Drew DeLong, lead in geopolitical dynamics practice at Kearney, a global strategy and management consulting firm, told BI that if the court strikes down tariffs before trade deals could come to pass, other routes of imposing tariffs could be more complicated and time-consuming. The White House did not provide Business Insider with any additional comment beyond Trump's Truth Social post.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Tesla Stock Falls Amid Musk Vs Trump Feud
Tesla TSLA shares had their worst day since March, falling 14% on Thursday as the feud between Elon Musk and President Trump continues to heat up, and is making international headlines. In the aftermath of his 130-day term ending as a special government employee, Musk has publicly criticized the Trump administration's budget reconciliation bill after previously heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Despite losing favoritism in the White House, Tesla shareholders have previously called on Musk to focus his attention back on the leading EV maker amid declining sales. Underlying this is that having a CEO push a political agenda had disrupted public sentiment, with Tesla facing significant losses of more than $100 million this year regarding vandalism at its dealerships and EV charging stations, which spilled over from nationwide protests targeting Elon Musk. This also created a somewhat unnecessary way for General Motors GM and Ford F to potentially take more share of the domestic EV market, with the public outcry of the 'Tesla Takedown' movement coming as the DOGE cut thousands of federal jobs at the discretion of the world's wealthiest person. Adding fury to Musk's frustration with President Trump's budget reconciliation bill is that it will eliminate tax credits for electric vehicles that have benefited Tesla and other EV manufacturers, while undermining his cost-cutting efforts as head of the DOGE. However, harsh criticism and a personal vendetta against the Trump administration could, of course, make Tesla the target of harsher EV regulations in the U.S., with the President threatening to take away the company's government contracts. Furthermore, this comes on the heels of recent reports that Tesla's sales have continued to decline in Europe, as sales in May fell 45% year over year in the U.K. and 36% in Germany amid rising competition from Chinese EV brands such as BYD and XPeng XPEV. Notably, BYD has surpassed Tesla as the top-selling EV brand in Europe. Most concerning to technical traders is that TSLA has fallen below its 50-day simple moving average (Green Line) of $292 a share, which is lower than its 200-day SMA (Red Line) of $310 due to the recent volatility in the stock. Generally, the 200-day SMA is lower than the 50-day SMA when a stock is in an uptrend and higher than the 50-day SMA when a stock is in a downtrend, as in Tesla's case. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Also suggesting more risk ahead for Tesla stock, and correlating with news of declining sales in Europe, is that fiscal 2025 and FY26 EPS estimates are noticeably lower in the last month and have now dropped 25% and 18% over the last 60 days, respectively. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Considering the short-selling strategy has paid off with TSLA of late, with it noteworthy that Tesla has led the Zacks Short Sale List with +20% gains after borrowing shares at $358.91 on Tuesday, May 27. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The back-and-forth spat between Elon Musk and President Trump won't do any favors for Tesla's outlook. Unfortunately, TSLA lands a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) at the moment in correlation with the trend of declining earnings estimate revisions. Eventually, this could end up being a lucrative buying opportunity for TSLA down the road, but a dispute between the world's most powerful and wealthiest person could drag down the broader market as well, with Tesla dragging the Nasdaq down roughly 1% on Thursday. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Ford Motor Company (F) : Free Stock Analysis Report General Motors Company (GM) : Free Stock Analysis Report XPeng Inc. Sponsored ADR (XPEV) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
Business Insider
2 hours ago
- Business Insider
U.S. Trade Officials to Meet with China on June 9
Yesterday, President Trump said that his phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping resulted in a ' very positive conclusion ' with plans for representatives from both sides to hold another round of trade talks. That conversation will come sooner than later. Confident Investing Starts Here: Today, Trump announced that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with Chinese representatives on Monday, June 9 in London. 'The meeting should go very well,' said Trump in a Truth Social post. U.S.-China Tensions Ease ahead of Talks Last month, both the U.S. and China agreed to lower their tariffs on each other by 115% in a preliminary trade deal, among other measures. A few weeks later, Trump accused China of violating the deal, with accusations such as continuing to restrict the flow of rare earth elements.
