Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves have launched a blistering critique against Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday and the New Democratic Party (NDP) delegation following their recent state visit to Taiwan.
Speaking on his weekly radio program, Gonsalves labeled the trip “full of pure hypocrisy” and characterized the reported financial outcomes as “underwhelming”, accusing the new administration of playing “baby play government” and attempting to deceive an ancient civilization .
According to Gonsalves, the NDP’s sudden embrace of Taiwan represents a massive and hypocritical policy U-turn. He recalled that in 2017, the NDP formally shifted its foreign policy to support a “One China” policy, declaring that if they returned to government, they would break diplomatic ties with Taiwan and establish relations with the People’s Republic of China (mainland China).
Gonsalves noted that Friday himself endorsed this policy and visited mainland China in late 2018 as Opposition Leader to cement those relations. Furthermore, Gonsalves alleged that mainland Chinese entities, including citizenship-by-investment operators, heavily funded the NDP’s previous election campaigns, and that officials from the Chinese embassy in Barbados directly coordinated with the party.
Now, having assumed office, the NDP has reversed its stance. “We notice that since the elections they have shifted,” Gonsalves remarked, pointing to a recent report in the St. Vincent Times where Friday rejected the One China policy and advocated for the further development of SVG-Taiwan relations, calling it a “partnership” rather than just a friendship.
Gonsalves ridiculed this shift, comparing the NDP’s relationship with Taiwan to a “common law union” or “man and woman living together,” whereas his administration always viewed Taiwan as “family”.
“You can’t trick them,” Gonsalves warned, referring to the Taiwanese representatives. “The Taiwanese are representatives of an ancient civilization which is 6,000 years old… You can’t trick them. You can’t fool them. You can’t mama them. You can’t blackmail them”.
Gonsalves asserted that the NDP’s sudden policy reversal is not based on principle but is a calculated move to avoid a severe financial crisis regarding the construction of the acute care hospital at Arnos Vale. The hospital is being built with Taiwanese funding under a contracted loan of $125 million USD (approximately $337.5 million EC). By the end of last year, about $40 million EC (or $99.9 million EC depending on late-year spending) had been spent.
“Are they only saying this to get past the funding of the hospital?” Gonsalves questioned. He explained that under the terms of the loan agreements, if St. Vincent and the Grenadines changes its diplomatic relations from Taiwan to mainland China, “all the money… would become due immediately”.
Gonsalves suggested that the NDP administration is desperately trying to secure debt relief and complete the hospital before potentially shifting alliances again. “They want the hospital especially… to be completed. And then we going to see whether the hypocrite change it on again”.
The NDP administration reported that they secured a $2 million USD grant for the newly proposed National Development Bank and $1.5 million EC for social development during their trip. Gonsalves immediately questioned whether this $3.5 million package is actual new funding or merely a redistribution of existing grants.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines already receives an annual “civic structure grant” of $4 million USD, which Gonsalves negotiated to increase from $1 million USD to $2 million USD, and finally to $4 million USD last year. He had also received indications of an increase to $5 or $6 million USD for 2026–2027.
Gonsalves argued that the Taiwanese government likely “redistributed the existing money and they put it in different clothing”. If this is the case, Gonsalves warned, it means the government will have to cut existing, highly successful social programs that were previously funded by the $4 million USD grant.
He specifically cited the Youth Empowerment Service (YES), the Support for Education and Training (SET) program, the ON-SITE six-month technical training program, and the PRIME/PRIME Plus small business grant programs.
“If this is just a redistribution of the money… what is going to happen to the funding for the YES and the SET?” Gonsalves asked, pointing out that under his administration, the annual grant paid for these programs as well as small business grants of up to $40,000 EC.
Addressing the “military honors” and “state banquet” Friday received in Taipei, Gonsalves dismissed the NDP’s celebration of these events as standard state-to-state protocol rather than a historic achievement. “Every head of government that goes to Taiwan, they have a military welcome… That is just normal state-to-state relations”.
He noted that Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s comment that he was “pleased” Friday visited after eight months in office carried a hidden diplomatic message. “What is the unspoken sentence there? … Yes, you come after 8 months. But Ralph was here within 6 weeks”.
Gonsalves recalled that during his first official visit as Prime Minister, he was awarded Taiwan’s highest civilian honor for a non-Taiwanese: the Order of the Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon. “Did they honor Friday on his first visit with any such thing?” Gonsalves asked. “They are measuring you… They don’t play cricket but they want to see if you going bouncer”.
Gonsalves also corrected Friday’s reported figures on SVG’s debt interest rates, which the government stated was at 5.35%. Gonsalves clarified that the modal interest rate on most Taiwanese loans is around 3%, and the acute care hospital loan is capped at a maximum of 3.5% .
He explained that under a special agreement Gonsalves negotiated with the Taiwanese government, the Taiwanese Ministry of Finance pays any interest rate differential if the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR)—which replaced the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) pushes the loan rate above 3.5%.
Furthermore, Gonsalves expressed deep skepticism about Friday’s claims of discussing “serious debt relief” with Taiwan.
He explained that the executive branch in Taiwan is accountable to its legislature and cannot easily grant unilateral debt relief to St. Vincent and the Grenadines without being forced to offer the same to all its global allies, including St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Haiti, Belize, Paraguay, and Eswatini.
“If they don’t, they’re going to have problems with the legislature in Taiwan,” Gonsalves said, drawing on his own extensive experience negotiating debt relief with the British government, the Italian state agency SACE, and Venezuela on PetroCaribe loans. “You’re talking to an experienced man now who done debt relief more than one time and got it… I make it look easy. It ain’t easy though”, Gonsalves said.
