ROC to close embassy in Gambia in one month: MOFA

Taipei, Nov. 19 (CNA) The Republic of China (Taiwan) will shut down its embassy in The Gambia in about one month after the rupture of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) officials said Tuesday.

The ROC embassy in The Gambia will be shut down according to standard operating procedures, according to David Wang, director-general of MOFA's Department of West Asian and African Affairs.

Samuel Chen, the ROC's ambassador to the West African state, will return home as soon as possible based on previous practices, Wang said, and members of Taiwan's agricultural technical mission there will also leave the country within a month.

MOFA spokeswoman Anna Kao said the ministry has also asked The Gambia to remove its embassy from Taiwan in one month based on the principle of equity.

The MOFA terminated diplomatic relations with The Gambia on Monday, three days after Banjul unilaterally announced it was ending formal ties.

Asked about loans made to the African country, Wang said The Gambia still has US$10 million in outstanding loans from Taiwan, but he was confident the money would be repaid.

Wang said Banjul has a good credit rating and has always met its loan obligations to Taiwan in the past.

The series of measures was taken after the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan asked the MOFA to reflect on The Gambia's abrupt severance of diplomatic ties with Taiwan and conduct a full review to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Premier Jiang Yi-huah said Tuesday the government will carefully examine what happened and discipline diplomatic personnel stationed in The Gambia.

He said their main failing was not providing any warning of a pending change in bilateral diplomatic ties, even if there were few indications of a potential shift in everyday dealings between the two countries.