Paraguay’s president urges UN to let Taiwan in, calls island’s ex

Paraguayan President Santiago Pena told the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that Paraguay “is not neutral” on the Taiwan Strait, framing support for the self-ruled island as a direct foreign-policy position rather than a distant dispute.

Pena calls for Taiwan’s UN participation

Pena pledged support for Taiwan and called for its “full and meaningful participation” in the UN system, saying the island’s exclusion from the world body was “a stain.”

The statement placed Paraguay openly behind Taiwan at the UN General Assembly, where Pena linked the issue to both international representation and security in the Taiwan Strait.

He warned of “ominous clouds gathering over the Indo-Pacific,” presenting the region’s tensions as a matter with consequences beyond Taiwan itself.

Warning over chips and the Indo-Pacific

Pena cast a conflict in the strait as a potentially greater threat than the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, arguing that the impact would extend to Japan, the rest of East and Southeast Asia and global chip supplies.

“Anyone pretending that this is far off or too distant to matter simply has not understood the 21st century,” Pena said.

He argued that microchips had become to this century what oil was to the last, tying the Taiwan Strait directly to the functioning of the global economy.

With stakes that “could scarcely be higher” and “the very future of humanity” on the line, Pena said neutrality was not an option for Asuncion.

Source: South China Morning Post