Taiwan’s Lai to visit Eswatini, its last diplomatic ally in Africa

TAIPEI – Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te will visit Eswatini between April 22 and April 26, his office said on April 13. The country in Southern Africa is the island’s last remaining diplomatic ally in the continent.

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 of them are small, less-developed nations in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific, such as Belize and Tuvalu.

Mr Lai will be in Eswatini for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, Mr Lai’s spokeswoman Karen Kuo told reporters.

The Taiwanese leader 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 US that routinely anger China.

This will be Mr 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 Ms 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 anti-viral medication to help King Mswati III recover from Covid-19. REUTERS