China today praised Gambia's move to resume diplomatic relations with it as a "historic moment", a day after the western African country snapped ties with Beijing's arch-rival Taiwan.
China and Gambia renewed their diplomatic relations yesterday after the small African country turned its back on Taiwan and recognised only one China.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Gambian counterpart Neneh MacDouall-Gaye signed a joint communique to resume diplomatic relations.
Wang dubbed the development as a "historic moment" for the two nations.
The Gambian government recognises that there is only one China, that the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China and that Taiwan is part of China, the joint communique said.
Gambia leaders said the resumption of ties was in the interests of all Gambians, so they made this right decision, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told a news briefing here.
Lu also said Gambia could avail itself of China's big investments in India.
The two countries established formal diplomatic links in 1974 but China suspended the relations in 1995 when Gambia resumed diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
Gambia severed ties with Taiwan in 2013.
The timing of Gambia's joining China was seen as diplomatic victory for Beijing over Taiwan's new leader Tsai Ing-wen who toed a hardline stand against China, reviving old tensions between the two estranged states.
In its editorial today, the ruling Communist Party of China's newspaper Global Times warned Tsai's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) against "provoking the mainland," but said the diplomatic truce was still held.
The DPP headed by Tsai "should avoid provoking the mainland by desinicisation, or it might trigger an all-out confrontation with the mainland", it said.
Last year, during the second summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg, South Africa, President Xi Jinpingoutlined a raft of measures to strengthen China-Africa ties and announced 10 major plans to boost bilateral win-win cooperation.
Gambia had automatically become a member of the FOCAC, Lu said.
