As poor nations struggle to get their hands on COVID-19 vaccines, a thinly populated South American country finds its chances linked to its unexpected role in growing tensions between the U.S. and China.
Paraguay¡¯s 63-year-old alliance with Taiwan ¡ª forged when both were run by right-wing authoritarians ¡ª means the government can¡¯t directly buy from China¡¯s vaccine-makers that have supplied other Latin American nations. Officials say they¡¯ve been approached to switch allegiances to Beijing to get the doses.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken phoned President Mario Abdo Benitez to stiffen his spine against such a shift. That led Foreign Minister Euclides Acevedo to speak frankly this week to Washington and Taipei.
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