Taiwan president to visit Eswatini, last diplomatic ally in Africa

TAIPEI: Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will visit Eswatini next week, his office said on Monday (Apr 13), the island's last remaining diplomatic ally in Africa.

Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory with no right to state-to-state relations, now has formal ties with only 12 countries, almost all small, less-developed nations in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific, like Belize and Tuvalu.

Lai will be in Eswatini from April 22-26, his spokesperson Karen Kuo told reporters, for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III's accession and his 58th birthday.

Lai is flying directly to Eswatini, which is almost entirely surrounded by South Africa, and does not require a layover, unlike visits to Latin America, which require transits via the United States that routinely anger China.

This will be Lai's first trip outside of Taiwan since November 2024, when he visited the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and Palau, and transited through Hawaii and the US territory of Guam.

The last time a Taiwanese president visited Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland and home to around 1.3 million people, was in 2023, when Tsai Ing-wen made the journey.

Taiwan has provided large amounts of aid to the small southern African nation, an absolute monarchy. In 2021, it sent antiviral medication to help King Mswati III recover from COVID-19.