Honduras may eventually ditch Taiwan to establish official ties with Beijing in the latest diplomatic tussle between the self-ruled island and the Chinese mainland.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro, who had promised to switch ties to Beijing during her election campaign in 2021 before later backtracking, has instructed the country's foreign minister to begin the process of establishing formal relations with Beijing.
The move was "a sign of my determination to comply with the government plan and expand borders freely", she said in a statement on Twitter on Tuesday.
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Taiwan's foreign ministry on Wednesday said it had "expressed grave concern" to the Honduran government about the move and asked the country not to fall into Beijing's trap.
"We have time and again told Honduras Taiwan is a true and reliable partner of its allies, and our government will assist Honduras to exercise its national development projects in every possible way within our capability," it said.
Honduras' foreign ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the possibility of a diplomatic switch.
Chinese ambassador to Mexico Zhang Run said on Twitter that Honduras had made the correct decision.
Signs of the country's possible shift in ties surfaced in January when Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reina met mainland Chinese foreign vice-minister Xie Feng.
According to a report from the Honduran newspaper La Prensa, Reina met Xie while the two were in Brasilia for the inauguration of Brazilian President Lula da Silva.
Reina later explained that their talks related to Beijing's potential construction of a hydroelectric dam in Honduras and had nothing to do with diplomatic issues.
Taiwan expressed grave concerns over the meeting and hit out at Beijing for allegedly offering "false promises" to Taipei's allies, with the sole purpose of minimising the island's international presence.
Last month, Reina reaffirmed ties with Taiwan, saying the talks with Beijing concerned loans for the hydroelectric dam and that relations with Taiwan would be maintained, according to the Honduran newspaper La Tribuna.
"What we are looking for, in this vision of creating more energy capacities for the country, is for (China) to finance Patuca II," he said, referring to the hydropower project.