TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Pacific island nation of Nauru announced on Monday it was severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan and instead recognizing China.
Washington
Taiwan loses another diplomatic ally as Nauru recognizes China
“This means that the Republic of Nauru will no longer recognize the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a separate country but rather as an inalienable part of China’s territory, and will sever ‘diplomatic relations’ with Taiwan as of this day and no longer develop any official relations or official exchanges with Taiwan,” it said in a statement that echoed standard Chinese descriptions.
The announcement came just two days after a historic election delivered Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party an unprecedented third term in office, despite Beijing’s efforts to sway the vote in favor of the more China-friendly party.
“This timing is not only China’s retaliation against our democratic elections but also a direct challenge to the international order,” Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted online. “Taiwan stands unbowed & will continue as a force for good.”
With deep regret we announce the termination of diplomatic relations with Nauru. This timing is not only China’s retaliation against our democratic elections but also a direct challenge to the international order. Taiwan stands unbowed & will continue as a force for good.
— 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼 (@MOFA_Taiwan) January 15, 2024
The Chinese Communist Party, which has never ruled Taiwan, claims the island democracy as part of its territory, and leader Xi Jinping insists unification is “inevitable.”
The announcement by Nauru marks another win for Beijing in its global pressure campaign to poach the remaining countries that recognize Taiwan. Beijing praised Nauru’s decision on Monday afternoon.
Nauru, an island of just 8 square miles — many scarred by shuttered phosphate mines — and 12,000 people roughly halfway between Australia and Hawaii, has few sources of revenue.
The move is the third such flip among small Pacific nations in less than five years after the Solomon Islands and Kiribati switched to recognizing Beijing in 2019.
Now only 11 countries — including Belize, Paraguay and Eswatini — and the Holy See officially recognize Taiwan as China has systematically picked off nations that continued to recognize Taipei.
“China is suppressing us and using money diplomacy in every possible way,” Tien Chung-kwang, Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister, said at a news conference Monday.
“No matter what the election result is, China is always trying to suffocate Taiwan in any international arena,” Tien said. Nauru had asked for a “huge amount” of economic assistance from Taiwan in recent years, he said.
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry received notice of Nauru’s plans to cut ties just before noon on Monday, he said.
Nauru previously dropped Taipei for Beijing from 2002 to 2005. Taiwanese officials said at the time that China had offered Nauru millions of dollars in aid and that Taipei had not been willing to engage in a bidding war to match it.
The tiny country seemed to stand firm against Beijing’s growing influence when a diplomatic spat at the 2018 Pacific Islands Forum over what then-president Baron Waqa called “bullying behavior” led him to decry the Chinese delegate as “a nobody.”
But Waqa was voted out a year later, and the current president, David Adeang, informed islanders of the switch in a short video posted to Facebook on Monday.
The timing of the announcement, on the heels of Taiwan’s election, is not a coincidence and demonstrates China’s efforts to dismantle Taipei’s network of allies in the Pacific, said Anna Powles, a Pacific expert at New Zealand’s Massey University.
“For so long, the Pacific was the bulkhead of Taiwan’s allies, and they have been successively whittled down over the years by China,” Powles said. Canberra and Washington’s ability to influence Pacific nations’ ties with China has been “demonstrably low,” she said.
In Taipei, Nauru’s decision has been taken as an indicator of Beijing’s displeasure with the choice of Lai Ching-te, whom it views as an agitator for independence, as the next president. The move also demonstrates China’s ambitions to shape the broader region, said Chung Chih-tung, a scholar at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan.
“In addition to warning Taiwan on the one hand, this importantly shows China’s ambitions to plant its flag in the South Pacific,” Chung said. “And this will also put considerable pressure on countries like the United States and Australia.”
James Batley, who served as Australia’s top diplomat to Nauru from 2007 to 2009, said the switch would bolster Xi’s claim that Beijing is bound to rule Taiwan.
“It entrenches this idea that this is the trend of history,” said Batley, a fellow at Australian National University. “Clearly China is working hard on every single country that recognizes Taiwan, and it’s had a win.”
Miller reported from Canberra, Australia. Pei-Lin Wu contributed to this report.
Beirut, Lebanon – On Tuesday, representatives from Lebanon and Israel met at the US Department of State in Washington, DC – the first session of a two-day round of negotiations that Lebanese negotiators hope will end an invasion of their country.
The negotiations, which started at 9am local time (13:00 GMT), come as Israel’s invasion of Lebanon pushes deeper than at any point since the year 2000 and as Hezbollah and Israel continue to trade attacks. Israel has killed 3,468 people in Lebanon since March 2, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
With the war raging on, what do Lebanon and Israel have to discuss and will the talks lead to an end of the Israeli assault?
Here’s everything you need to know.
What will Israel and Lebanon discuss?
Similar to past meetings, the two sides are ostensibly looking to come to some kind of deal following fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, with strong doubts it will be achieved.
Lebanon’s government is still pushing for a total ceasefire. However, as talks started, Israel was striking various parts of southern Lebanon. Lebanon is also trying to get Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory in the south, so that more than 1.2 million displaced people can return home, and so the state can resume finding a way to disarm Hezbollah and rebuild areas devastated by Israeli attacks.
Israel is meanwhile looking to get assurances that Lebanon will disarm Hezbollah, a prospect analysts say Israel knows is complicated by the continuation of its military operations and occupation of swaths of southern Lebanon. Instead, Israel appears to be trying to fuel sectarian tensions inside Lebanon, leading to chaos and internal strife.
What has happened so far?
An initial meeting took place in April between Israel and Lebanon’s ambassadors to the United States. A second round took place in May with a larger delegation on both sides.
On Friday, a meeting took place with Lebanese and Israeli military representatives, while Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group, is not involved in the meetings.
Israel claimed the two sides found common ground in that they both wanted to see Hezbollah disarmed. Some Israeli officials suggested there may soon be trade agreements and an exchange of tourists between the two countries. Lebanon, however, said it preferred to find a deal closer to the 1949 armistice agreement between the two countries.
In the last meeting, Beirut reportedly outlined the damage done by Israeli attacks since the 2024 ceasefire agreement and presented detailed maps showing homes destroyed or razed by Israel.
Is there a chance for a ceasefire?
That remains to be seen, but for now, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country’s military would continue attacking Lebanon.
On Monday, Netanyahu announced that attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs would resume, despite a ceasefire. Apart from two targeted attacks, Israel has not struck the suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, since April.
Iran, which has attempted to include Lebanon in a wider ceasefire between themselves, on one side, and Israel and the US on the other, then intervened by threatening to attack northern Israel.
US President Donald Trump reportedly intervened to stop Israel’s attacks. He announced another ceasefire, after his previous announcement of one between Israel and Lebanon on April 16, after claiming he had gotten the approval of Netanyahu and spoken to Hezbollah.
“There will be no troops going to Beirut, and any troops that are on their way have already been turned back,” Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social.
But attacks from Israel and Hezbollah are continuing.
How do Lebanese people feel about the talks?
Not everyone is on the same page.
Some Lebanese support the talks and say they are the only option the state, which has little leverage, has. Among those who believe direct talks are the best way forward are Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
“There is no option other than negotiation,” Aoun said in a statement on Tuesday.
Others, however, oppose direct talks. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and his allies, Hezbollah, have said indirect talks are preferred and that negotiations cannot be conducted while attacks are ongoing.
How are Iran and the US connected?
Israel and the US attacked Iran on February 28, killing the country’s longtime leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran is Hezbollah’s primary benefactor, and two days after Khamenei’s assassination, Hezbollah fired six rockets towards Israel on 2 March.
Hezbollah’s response brought a huge response from Israel, who have crossed the Litani River – the supposed buzzer zone in southern Lebanon it had created – towards the Zahrani River.
Despite a 2024 ceasefire, Israel had never stopped attacking Lebanon, while Hezbollah had only responded once in December 2024.
Iran has attempted to include Lebanon in the ceasefire deal it has with the United States and Israel, who say this theatre is not part of the agreement.
Although Trump has now announced a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel twice, the invasion of southern Lebanon continues.
Are there other actors involved?
Gulf states have also intervened. Saudi Arabia has been working behind the scenes to get Lebanon’s leadership – Aoun, Salam and Berri – on the same page. Meanwhile, analysts say Saudi Arabia and Qatar engaged the Trump administration to stop an escalation in Lebanon.
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A contract worker was killed by a falling tree on Monday afternoon in Washington County, officials said.
The Washington County Office of the Coroner said in a news release that the contractor was killed after the tree fell on them around 4 p.m. The worker, who was not immediately identified, was hired to cut down a tree at a residence on Lynn Portal Road in Canton Township, and it fell in an unintended direction, killing the person, the coroner said.
No other information was immediately released on Monday evening. The Greene-Washington Regional Police Department and the coroner are investigating.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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