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Paraguay's president, Mario Abdo, will visit Taiwan next week as the island seeks to shore up ties with one of its oldest allies ahead of an election in April that could see the Latin American country ditch Taipei in favour of Beijing.

Paraguay is one of only 14 countries to have formal diplomatic relations with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, and Beijing has been stepping up efforts to get those remaining allies to abandon Taipei.

Paraguay would cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan and open relations with China if the opposition wins the election, its presidential candidate Efrain Alegre has said, hoping to boost economically important soy and beef exports.

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that Abdo, accompanied by his foreign and commerce ministers, would visit Taiwan from Feb. 14-18, meet President Tsai Ing-wen and attend a briefing on meat promotion and investment opportunities.

"Taiwan and Paraguay have had diplomatic relations for more than 65 years and a deep friendship," the ministry added.

Abdo is not standing again for the presidency. Santiago Pena, the ruling Colorado Party candidate, has said Paraguay's relations with Taiwan would remain intact if he wins on April 30.

Paraguay's Taiwan ties have been under pressure in recent years, especially from the country's beef producers and farmers, who see the relationship as an obstacle to gaining access to the world's largest market for their products.

China views Taiwan as one of its provinces, with no right to state-to-state ties, a position Taipei hotly disputes.

Latin and Central America, as well as the Caribbean, have traditionally been diplomatic strongholds for Taiwan, but China has chipped away at those countries, with Nicaragua being the most recent country to go over to Beijing, in late 2021.

The issue has taken on broader geopolitical significance amid U.S. concerns about China expanding its influence in the region. (Reuters)

Residents of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, are being asked to prepare for further bad weather as a system described as potentially “the most serious storm to impact New Zealand this century” is forecast to hit in coming days.

The warnings come less than two weeks after Auckland was hit by historic levels of rain, which killed four people, caused widespread flooding, landslides and a clean-up bill in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Auckland Emergency Management said it was working with MetService, the meteorological agency, to track the storm, dubbed Cyclone Gabrielle. It said residents should check in with neighbours, family and friends who might need help preparing for the storm.

Gabrielle is sitting in the Coral Sea but is forecast to track south toward Aoetearoa, New Zealand, over the next few days and near the North Island on Monday. Forecasters expected to it bring heavy rain to the upper North Island, including Auckland, cause severe gales, large waves and storm surges.

New Zealand weather forecaster WeatherWatch.co.nz said the cyclone, which will most likely become a Category 3 cyclone this weekend, will reach the country between Sunday and Tuesday. Category 3 storms have winds of 119-157 kilometres per hour, with gusts up to 224kph.

“If this current modelling comes true, this will likely be the most serious storm to impact New Zealand this century – especially with Auckland being in the mix for a potential direct hit,” WeatherWatch.co.nz said Wednesday.

It added that the potential weather event would be concerning even if had Auckland not recently experienced serious flooding.

Roughly one cyclone makes affects New Zealand each year. However, MetService said the characteristics and structure of any tropical cyclone will change dramatically by the time it reaches New Zealand, and it will almost certainly be re-classified as an ex-tropical cyclone.

“Re-classification as an ex-tropical cyclone does not necessarily mean the system has weakened,” MetService added. (Reuters)

Australia's A$750 million ($521.78 million) lobster trade with China could be on the verge of restarting after more than two years of unofficial bans, state broadcaster ABC reported on Thursday, citing a licence application that was not rejected immediately.

Trade Minister Don Farrell told the ABC that an unnamed exporter had applied for the licence and it was not rejected immediately, days after a virtual meeting with his Chinese counterpart yielded an invitation to visit Beijing for more talks.

It is believed to be the first time this has happened since unofficial bans cut off the trade in late 2020, the ABC added.

"Any step towards resolving the trade impediments would be welcome," Farrell said on Thursday in response to questions from Reuters.

If the ban is lifted, lobsters could follow coal as the second commodity to see Chinese trade sanctions ease as diplomatic relations between the two countries thaw after meetings between the respective leaders, foreign ministers and trade ministers.

Trading teams at Geraldton Fisherman's Co-operative in Western Australia state, which controls three-quarters of the largest rock lobster fishery in the world, have not seen any change to customs or trade rules with China, a spokesperson for the group said.

The South China Morning Post reported in January that Chinese officials were discussing giving customs clearance to Australian lobsters. (Reuters)

Washington must commit more diplomatic and security resources to the Indo-Pacific to push back against China as Beijing seeks to create a regional sphere of influence and become the world's most influential power, U.S. Senate Democrats said on Thursday.

The majority Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued the report - seen by Reuters before its release - almost exactly a year after President Joe Biden's administration released its strategy to modernize alliances in the region, strengthen emerging partnerships and invest in relationships.

The committee's chairman, Senator Robert Menendez, is expected to discuss the report at a hearing on Thursday where senior diplomat Wendy Sherman will testify on China policy.

The Senate report says that vision is "commendable," but gives recommendations as to how the U.S. government should sharpen the aims of the strategy and do more to ensure there are enough resources available to back up its efforts.

"Despite four successive administrations identifying Asia as a priority region for U.S. attention and assistance, none have made the necessary tradeoffs to ensure that sources are allocated in a manner commensurate with such prioritization," the report said.

For example, the administration's foreign assistance request for the region for the fiscal year ending in September 2023 was $1.7 billion, or only 7.7% of the overall foreign assistance budget, even though the Indo-Pacific region accounts for more than half of the world's population, the report said.

The United States is trying to reassert itself in the region after a period of uncertainty about its commitment to Asia under then-U.S. President Donald Trump, and concerted efforts by rival China to boost its own influence.

The report said the Biden administration must significantly increase funding for diplomacy and development across the U.S. government and dedicate a larger portion of the Department of State operating budget and foreign assistance to the Indo-Pacific.

Its recommendations include working closely with Congress, including providing a detailed list of its plans for implementing the Indo-Pacific Strategy and advancing economic integration with countries in the region, including prioritizing a meaningful trade program with Taiwan.

A desire for a hard line in dealings with Beijing is one of the few truly bipartisan sentiments in the deeply divided U.S. Congress, with both Republicans and Biden's Democrats calling for increased efforts to counteract China's global influence.

Tensions between the two countries have been especially high of late, most recently as the United States shot down a Chinese spy balloon on Saturday for spying over U.S. territory.

The appearance of the Chinese balloon last week caused political outrage in Washington and prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a trip to Beijing that both countries had hoped would patch their frayed relations. Blinken would have arrived in Beijing on Sunday. (Reuters)