A senior Vatican diplomat, speaking as President Jiang Zemin of China made an official visit to Italy, said yesterday that the Holy See was willing to rethink its relations with Taiwan in order to forge ties with Beijing.
The Vatican Foreign Minister, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, holding out the Vatican's latest olive branch to Beijing, also said the Vatican would not interfere in China's internal relations if ties were forged.
"We are aware that in order to normalise our relations with Beijing we will have to modify the form (of relations) with Taipei," he told Milan's Corriere della Sera newspaper.
"We are willing to negotiate," Archbishop Tauran said when asked about Beijing's insistence that the Vatican sever ties with Taiwan before talks on links with China could begin.