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Taiwan 'needs to rethink' foreign policy after Gambia exit

African nation's shock decision to cut ties with island seen as sign Taipei relying too much on Beijing's goodwill to help it keep its remaining allies

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With Gambia gone, there are only 22 countries recognising Taiwan. Photo: EPA

Taiwan has a lot of soul searching to do over how far its "flexible diplomacy" policy can go after the Gambia became the first country in nearly six years to cut ties with the island, local analysts said yesterday.

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It took Taipei until yesterday to finally announce the end of bilateral ties after the tiny West African nation surprised the island by declaring on Friday a rupture of diplomatic relations.

The first move of the government of mainland-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou was to check if the so-called "China factor" was behind the Gambia's action. It breathed a sigh of relief when Beijing later denied it had anything to do with it, and that it had no intention to establish diplomatic ties with the African nation.

Taiwanese lawmakers were swift to ask the Ma government what had gone wrong.

"If Ma's so-called flexible diplomacy policy bears fruit and allows Taiwan to celebrate diplomatic harvests, I don't know how you can explain such a humiliating act from the Gambia, which cut ties with us without even bothering to give us prior notice," said Chiu Yi-ying, a legislator for the opposition Democratic Progressive Party.

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She shot the question at Foreign Minister David Lin during a legislature meeting yesterday to discuss the issue. The Gambia only informed Taiwan about the rupture early on Friday morning, roughly one hour ahead of the first reports of the news in foreign media. Both Lin and Premier Jiang Yi-huah later admitted they had been left in the dark before the abrupt notice.

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