Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will visit Eswatini next week, his office said on Monday, marking a trip to the island’s last remaining diplomatic ally in Africa.
Taiwan—claimed by China as its own territory with no right to state-to-state relations—now maintains formal ties with just 12 countries, most of them small, developing nations in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific, including Belize and Tuvalu.
Lai will be in Eswatini from April 22 to 26, his spokesperson Karen Kuo said, to attend celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession to the throne as well as his 58th birthday.
Unlike visits to Latin America, which typically involve transit through the United States and often provoke strong reactions from Beijing, Lai will travel directly to Eswatini—an enclave largely surrounded by South Africa—without a stopover.
This will be Lai’s first overseas trip since November 2024, when he visited the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau, transiting through Hawaii and the US territory of Guam.
The last Taiwanese president to visit Eswatini—formerly known as Swaziland—was Tsai Ing-wen in 2023. The country, home to about 1.3 million people and governed as an absolute monarchy, has long been a recipient of Taiwanese aid.
In 2021, Taiwan sent antiviral medication to help King Mswati III recover from COVID-19, underscoring the close ties between the two nations.
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