USA: Honduras, one of only 14 sovereign nations to maintain formal ties with the island of Taiwan, has announced that it will seek to establish diplomatic ties with mainland China instead. Honduras President Xiomara Castro made the announcement.

To join the rest of the world in "expanding the borders with freedom," Castro tweeted on Tuesday that she had given Foreign Minister Eduardo Reina the order to "manage the opening of official relations with the People's Republic of China."

If the Central American nation follows through with the plan, it will probably have to sever ties with Taiwan because Beijing won't maintain diplomatic relations with nations that do so in defiance of its "one-China" policy.

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Taipei has yet to comment on the announcement publicly, but a source within its foreign affairs department said officials were "in the process of ascertaining the situation," according to the Central News Agency.

Honduras could join the list of more than a hundred nations that have changed their diplomatic allegiance over the years from Taiwan to the People's Republic of China. Nicaragua switched its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 2021, following the Solomon Islands in 2019, while the Dominican Republic and El Salvador cut ties with Taiwan in 2018. In 2017, Panama severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

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Only a small number of countries, including Guatemala, Paraguay, Belize, Haiti, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Tuvalu, Eswatini, and the Holy See, recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state at the moment.

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Despite reserving some rights, Beijijng has promised to peacefully reunite with the island because it views Taiwan as a part of its sovereign territory.