Taiwan and Nicaragua Resume Diplomatic Ties

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Nationalist Chinese government announced Tuesday that it has resumed diplomatic links with Nicaragua, whose former Sandinista rulers dropped anti-communist Taipei for Beijing in 1985.

Foreign Minister Fredrick Chien said that the agreement, which brings to 28 the number of countries that formally recognize Taipei, was negotiated in large part through the offices of Taiwan’s aggressive business community.

Taiwan severed ties with Managua in December, 1985, after Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government established diplomatic relations with Beijing. The Sandinistas were defeated in elections last February, bringing into power a new, non-communist government under President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.