Recognition of the ROC had been gradually dwindled over the years. The Gambia withdrew recognition of the ROC in 2013. This was followed by São Tomé and Príncipe on 21 December 2016 and Fiji with the closure to the Taipei office in May 2017 (Fiji and ROC had unofficial relations from 1996 onwards). This was also followed by Panama recognizing the PRC on June 13, 2017, then the Dominican Republic on May 1, 2018, Burkina Faso on May 24, 2018, El Salvador on August 20, 2018, and finally Kiribati and the Solomon Islands in September 2019. Today, only 14 UN member states (Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Paraguay, Swaziland, Nauru, Tuvalu, Marshall Islands and Palau) and the Holy See maintain relations with the ROC.