Nicaragua has just demonstrated that small nations can play a critical role in shifting the global strategic crisis. Yesterday, on the first day of the U.K.-U.S. “Summit for Democracy,” called to prove “we are in control here,” Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada announced that Managua was breaking ties with Taiwan and supporting the One China principle. Today, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu and Nicaragua’s Investment, Trade and International Cooperation advisor Laureano Ortega Murrillo met in Tianjin, China to sign a Joint Communiqué establishing full diplomatic relations. In the video discussions which followed between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Foreign Minister Moncada, and then with the Nicaraguan delegation in China, both sides spoke of starting discussions immediately on Nicaragua joining the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Establishing relations “is a rallying call for both countries to forge ahead side by side and pursue common development,” Wang Yi told his Nicaraguan counterpart. Moncada replied that Nicaragua is honored to inaugurate “a new era of growth” with China, specifying that Nicaragua “stands ready to start talks with China on signing cooperation agreements under the BRI.” He pointed to the “singular importance” of Nicaragua making this decision “in the complex moments such as the world is going through.”
When Wang Yi spoke with Laureano Ortega, and Finance Minister Ivan Acosta who accompanied him, he “warmly congratulated both teams for the record-breaking speed in resuming diplomatic ties. He noted that China is delighted to have a new friend in Latin America and the Caribbean, and a good partner in advancing Belt and Road cooperation and building a community with a shared future for mankind,” the Foreign Ministry reported.
