Paraguay and Taiwan: South America's Only Diplomatic Ally, a Sixty-Nine-Year Pragmatic Partnership

30-second overview: Paraguay and the Republic of China established diplomatic relations in 1957, reaching their 69th year in 2026. Paraguay is Taiwan's only diplomatic ally in South America and the largest by area among its current allies, though its population is smaller than some of Taiwan's Central American partners. From May 7 to 10, 2026, Paraguayan President Santiago Peña led a delegation on his first state visit to Taiwan; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that President Lai Ching-te would receive him on May 8 with a military honor guard, a state banquet, and the conferral of the Order of Brilliant Jade. This alliance has withstood Chinese courtship through diplomatic recognition, agricultural and livestock market access, the Taiwan-Paraguay Polytechnic University, a smart technology park, and long-term technical cooperation.¹²

1989: An Ambassador's Decision

The Taiwan-Paraguay relationship was born with a strong Cold War backdrop. In the 1950s, Chiang Kai-shek's government and Paraguay's Alfredo Stroessner regime both stood on the anti-communist side, giving the establishment of ties a clear political context. The real test came in 1989.

In February 1989, Andrés Rodríguez led a coup that toppled Stroessner, who had ruled for nearly 35 years. Beijing immediately attempted to woo the new government into switching recognition to the People's Republic of China. At the time, Taiwan's ambassador to Paraguay, Wang Sheng, rushed to Asunción and persuaded the Rodríguez government to maintain relations with Taiwan, arguing on the basis of Taiwan's long-term development cooperation, technical assistance, and market linkages.³

This episode is important because it pushed the Taiwan-Paraguay relationship beyond the inertia of "anti-communist alignment" into a new phase: for the relationship to endure, it had to answer Paraguay's own development needs. From that point on, the alliance would have to be sustained by concrete results from each round of cooperation.

From Exchange of Notes to Agreements

July 12, 1957, is the anniversary of Taiwan-Paraguay diplomatic relations. On the 60th anniversary in 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also chose July 12 to announce mutual visa-free treatment for ordinary passport holders, explicitly marking the date as the diplomatic anniversary.⁴

After establishing ties, the two sides signed a series of agreements covering culture, technology, investment, and tourism. In July 2017, President Tsai Ing-wen and then-Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes jointly witnessed the signing of the Taiwan-Paraguay Economic Cooperation Agreement (ECA), which entered into force on February 28, 2018, becoming an important institutional foundation for agricultural and livestock products such as pork and beef to enter the Taiwan market.⁵

There is a detail that is easy to get wrong: Paraguay covers approximately 407,000 square kilometers, making it the largest of Taiwan's current diplomatic allies by area; its population of roughly 7 million is smaller than some of Taiwan's Central American allies. Writing "largest in both area and population" instead of "largest in area" would turn a strong factual claim into a false one.⁶

Pork, Beef, and Agricultural Technology

Taiwan is now Paraguay's most important pork export market. According to a March 2025 report by Paraguay's Agencia IP, Paraguay exported 9,124 metric tons of pork to Taiwan in 2024, worth approximately US$28 million, accounting for about 86% of Paraguay's pork exports. An August 2025 report also noted that Taiwan takes over 80% of Paraguay's pork exports, with zero tariffs taking effect from July 5, 2025.⁷⁸

Beef is equally central. An August 2025 Agencia IP report stated that Taiwan has become Paraguay's second most important beef market, with exports to Taiwan exceeding 25 million kilograms and approximately US$151 million in the first half of 2025. Behind these figures is Paraguay's agricultural sector finding a stable buyer in the Taiwan market.⁸

Taiwan's International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF) runs agricultural cooperation programs in Paraguay that go far beyond what the word "foreign aid" conveys. Feed processing factories, freshwater white pomfret fingerling breeding, commercial surubí fish production, flower cultivation, and agricultural AI — these projects embed technology, equipment, and training into Paraguay's local industrial chains. The real impact of diplomacy often lies in this kind of technology transfer that rarely makes the front page.⁹

The Taiwan-Paraguay Polytechnic University and the Smart Technology Park

In 2018, the Paraguayan Congress passed Law No. 6096, creating the Universidad Politécnica Taiwán-Paraguay, known as the Taiwan-Paraguay Polytechnic University (UPTP). The university was jointly promoted by Taiwan and Paraguay, with the Taiwan University of Science and Technology (Taiwan Tech) participating in curriculum, faculty, and laboratory planning, with the goal of cultivating Paraguay's own engineering and technical talent.¹⁰

In 2018, President Tsai Ing-wen's "Journey of the Same Celebration" trip to Paraguay centered on attending the inauguration of President Mario Abdo Benítez and participating in the opening of UPTP preparatory courses. Presidential records from the time are clear: the inauguration on August 15, 2018, was Abdo Benítez's; the trip had nothing to do with Peña's inauguration or Paraguay's bicentennial.¹¹¹²

In 2025, Taiwan-Paraguay cooperation moved another step toward the industrial end. The Taiwan-Paraguay Smart Technology Park was inaugurated in Minga Guazú, Alto Paraná, with a total investment of approximately US$6.3 million, covering 40 hectares, with 93 industrial lots and 22,050 square meters of engineering facilities. This park translates Taiwan's science park experience into industrial and technological infrastructure that can take root in Paraguay.¹³

Timeline of Presidential Visits

In 2016, Tsai Ing-wen made her first trip abroad as president to visit diplomatic allies, with Paraguay as her first stop. In Asunción, she presided over the inauguration of the new ROC Embassy building and received the key to the city of Asunción.¹⁴

In 2017, Tsai made a state visit to Paraguay, where she and Cartes jointly witnessed the signing of the ECA. In 2018, she attended Abdo Benítez's inauguration on the "Journey of the Same Celebration" and also attended the opening of UPTP preparatory courses. These three trips corresponded to three distinct diplomatic settings: an embassy, an agreement, and education.⁵¹¹

Santiago Peña's timeline also needs to be stated precisely. In August 2023, Lai Ching-te attended Peña's inauguration as presidential special envoy. In May 2024, Peña traveled to Taiwan to attend the inauguration of Lai Ching-te and Hsiao Bi-khim; that was Lai's first presidential inauguration. The Presidential Office's May 21, 2024, meeting record also clearly states that Peña was in Taiwan to attend the Lai-Hsiao inauguration.¹⁵

From May 7 to 10, 2026, Peña visited Taiwan for the second time and for the first time in the form of a state visit. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release on April 30 had already announced that Lai would receive him on May 8 with a full military honor guard, a state banquet, and the conferral of the Order of Brilliant Jade; the delegation would also witness the signing of cooperation documents, visit the Southern Taiwan Science Park, and Peña would receive an honorary doctorate from Taiwan Tech.²

The Allure and Cost of the Chinese Market

China's courtship of Paraguay has never stopped. For Paraguayan agricultural and livestock producers, the Chinese market is enormous, and the benefits for soybeans and beef are straightforward; but the issue cannot be reduced to "more money, therefore switch."

A 2025 analysis by the Economic Research Center (CEE) under the Paraguayan Industrial Union (UIP) pointed out that if Paraguay were to open commercial relations with mainland China and sign a free trade agreement, it could bring benefits in soybean export prices, import savings, and infrastructure financing; but factoring in the loss of the Taiwan market, the termination of bilateral cooperation, reduced tariff revenue, and the impact on sensitive industries, the annual net effect could be negative, estimated at approximately US$592 million per year.¹⁶

Therefore, the pressure from the Chinese market should not be written as a single, enormous numerical temptation. A more careful formulation is: the Chinese market is indeed both pressure and allure, but there are also voices within Paraguay assessing that switching to Beijing would not necessarily yield overall economic gains — instead, benefits might be concentrated in a few bulk export sectors while costs are borne by industries and public finances.

Direct trade figures for 2024 are also frequently misstated. Paraguay imported approximately US$5.1 billion from China and exported approximately US$239.2 million to China; writing US$51 billion and US$2.392 billion would distort the entire argument.

What This Relationship Really Rests On

The Taiwan-Paraguay relationship is easily reduced to "Taiwan trades aid for diplomatic recognition." There is a grain of truth in that, but it is far too flat. A closer description is: Paraguay supports Taiwan with diplomatic recognition, and Taiwan reciprocates with market access, education, agricultural technology, public health, and industrial cooperation, giving that recognition tangible developmental value for Paraguay.

This is also why the relationship has survived 1989, survived multiple elections, and survived the allure of the Chinese market. It has always been under pressure; Taiwan has converted that pressure into things Paraguayan society can see: pork exports, beef markets, engineering talent, a technology park, technical missions, and scholarships.

The core question is not "Will Paraguay stay on Taiwan's side forever." Nothing in diplomacy is forever. What matters more is whether Taiwan can continue to make this relationship exist simultaneously in presidential military honor guards, joint declarations, Paraguayan farms, classrooms, factories, and markets.

Sixty-nine years of diplomatic relations do not live in rhetoric; they live in concrete cooperation.

Further reading:

• Taiwan's Diplomatic Allies and International Diplomacy — A full picture of 12 diplomatic allies, overseas offices, and the visa-free network
• Taiwan and Eswatini — Africa's only diplomatic ally, another case of "long-term cooperation and fragile politics"
• Cognitive Warfare — The information, language, and pressure framework of China's diplomatic warfare against Taiwan
• The 2026 Zheng-Xi Meeting and the KMT-CCP Reunion — Cross-strait political dynamics of the same period, for understanding the broader context of Chinese pressure on Taiwan

Image Sources

This article uses 2 photos from official ROC Presidential Office press releases, all cached in public/article-images/society/ to avoid hotlinking to the source server. License: Open Government Data License (OGDL).

• taiwan-paraguay-embassy-inauguration-2016.jpg (hero) — June 28, 2016, President Tsai Ing-wen's first visit to Paraguay, inaugurating the new embassy building. Photo: ROC Presidential Office.
• taiwan-paraguay-asuncion-key-2016.jpg — June 28, 2016, President Tsai Ing-wen receiving the key to the city of Asunción from Mayor Mario Ferreiro, witnessing the friendship between the two nations. Photo: ROC Presidential Office.

References