Taiwan-Africa summit a normal diplomatic activity: foreign minister

Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang said Sunday that the ongoing Taiwan-Africa Head of State Summit is a normal form of diplomatic activity aimed at promoting mutual cooperation and prosperity.

Huang made the remarks after officials with China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the summit as part of Taiwan's "checkbook diplomacy" aimed at promoting its de jure independence.

"China's linking such purely diplomatic activity to Taiwan independence demonstrates that Beijing's authorities are behaving hysterically in their efforts to isolate the nation diplomatically", Huang told reporters.

Noting that neither new cooperation programs nor loan projects will be put forward during the one-day summit, Huang said the host country provided only traveling expenses for those participating in the summit and other related administrative expenses related to sponsoring the activity.

Huang recalled that during the forum on China-Africa cooperation held in 2006, Beijing agreed to offer its African diplomatic allies financial aid worth US$20 billion, including elimination of external debts and interest-free and soft loans. It is China that has been engaging in so-called "checkbook diplomacy," he stressed.

Taiwan's first leadership meeting with its five diplomatic allies in Africa -- Swaziland, Burkina Faso, Sao Tome and Principe, Malawi and The Gambia -- opening the day at the Grand Hotel in Taipei, but

President Chen Shui-bian presented a commemorative stamp to Swazi King Mswati III prior to the opening of the First Taiwan-Africa Head of State Summit at Grand Hotel in Taipei. The stamp was issued to mark the event.

Leaders of other African allies -- Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika, Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, Sao Tome and Principe President Fradique de Menezes and The Gambia Vice President Isatou Njie Saidy were also presented with stamps as souvenirs.