Taipei: Taiwan's envoy to the funeral of Pope Francis said that he had prayed for President Lai Ching-Te to be able to attend the inauguration of the new pontiff and that he had met the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, lightening the diplomatic isolation of the island.
The Vatican is one of the 12 countries to maintain official links with Taiwan in Chinese recipes, whose government had hoped that Lai could have attended Francis funeral, giving him the chance to mix with other world leaders such as US President Donald Trump.
However, the former vice-president Chen Chien-Jen ended up representing Lai, a devout Catholic who had already met Francis six times.
Francis had led a great awareness of an official atheist of China, in particular by signing an agreement on the appointment of Catholic bishops in this country, worrying Taiwan.
In the comments published by the official central press agency of Taiwan, Saturday April 26, after the end of the funeral, Chen said that he hoped that Francis continued to pray from the sky for even better relations between Taiwan and the Vatican.
“I also hope that when the new pope is elected, President Lai Ching-Te can represent our country to attend the inauguration of the new Pope, which I mentioned in my prayers at mass,” said Chen.
The conclave that will eliminate a new pope should start a while between May 6 and 11.
The inauguration of Francis in 2013 was assisted by my Ying-Jeou de Taiwan at the time of Taiwan.
China has not announced that it had sent a delegation to the funeral of Francis, but expressed its condolences.
Chen was accompanied by the funeral of the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs François Wu, previously the Taipei de facto ambassador in France and one of the most highly publicized diplomats of Taiwan who appear regularly in the interviews with the foreign media.
Chen and Wu both met and spoke with former United States President Joe Biden, whose administration has provided strong support to Taiwan, said the central news agency.
Chen also said that he had met the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs in Takeshi Iwaya and “spoke of good cooperation between the two countries,” added the report.
China says that Taiwan is one of its provinces without right to state ties to the state, a position that the Taipei government firmly rejects.
