US Vice President Michael Pence canceled a meeting with Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare after this island nation severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan. This was reported by Pence.

Accoding to him, Sogavare in July during a telephone conversation with Pence made a proposal to hold a meeting in order to develop cooperation. It was planned that the parties will meet in New York at the end of September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, but this event was canceled due to the situation with the severance of diplomatic relations between the Solomon Islands and Taiwan.

“The decision of the Solomon Islands to establish diplomatic relations with China instead of Taiwan had its consequences,” the agency’s source said. The US administration also called the incident the desire of the Solomon Islands “to receive short-term benefits from China instead of long-term relations with the United States.”

Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Tuesday that China welcomes the decision of the Solomon Islands government to break off diplomatic relations with Taiwan and expects to increase cooperation in the future.

The head of the Taiwan Foreign Ministry, Joseph W, said on Monday that Taiwan was breaking off official relations with the Solomon Islands, as this Pacific state decided to establish diplomatic relations with the PRC.

As a result, the number of countries recognizing the sovereignty of a self-governing Chinese island worldwide has declined to 16. The bulk of them are the tiny and small states of Latin America, Africa and Oceania, to which Taipei provides financial and economic assistance. Last year, Taiwan immediately lost three allies in the international arena: Burkina Faso, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador severed ties with it.

Beijing lost control of Taiwan after the end of the civil war in 1949. From 2008 to 2016, during the reign of the Kuomintang party, relations between the parties on different banks of the Taiwan Strait became warmer. But they again experienced a serious rollback after returning to power on the island of the Democratic Progressive Party, headed by Cai Inven, in May 2016, which is a staunch opponent of the course towards rapprochement with the PRC.