The government of Taiwan has handed half-a-million dollars over to Nicaragua to finance projects to strengthen the country's institutions and to promote investment and foreign trade, according to dpa. Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry officials said Thursday in Managua that the assistance was part of an agreement that Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Samuel Santos and Taiwanese Ambassador Wu Chin-mu signed Tuesday. Santos said it highlighted the "extraordinary cooperation, collaboration and understanding" between the two countries since Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was inaugurated in January 2007. He added that Taiwan is helping Nicaragua in the fields of energy, food, health, education, justice and infrastructure, among others. Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still considers the island an integral part of the mainland that must be brought back into the Chinese fold. Nicaragua is one of only a few dozen countries in the world who recognize Taiwan as a country. Several of its allies are in Central America, though Costa Rica's decision last year to switch its recognition to China has caused many in Taiwan to fear that other countries in the region might follow suit.
