The Taiwanese President William Lai has arrived in Eswatini for the kingdom’s jubilee celebrations, becoming the first Taiwanese president to make an official visit to the continent a carefully choreographed moment of diplomatic signalling that has drawn expressions of support from political figures across 11 African nations.
More than 40 cross-party officials spanning Botswana, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria and Somaliland issued formal welcome messages ahead of the visit through official letters, social media posts and personal communications.
Eswatini is Taiwan’s only formal diplomatic ally on the African continent and the visit, timed to coincide with King Mswati III’s 40th jubilee, is designed to do more than mark an occasion. Taiwan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung described it as an effort to inject new momentum into Taiwan-Africa relations, strengthening ties across regions and political parties simultaneously.
Taiwan maintains six representative offices in Africa across five countries, alongside quasi-official diplomatic relations with Somaliland. The breadth of welcome messages received ahead of Lai’s visit, from countries that do not formally recognise Taiwan, reflects the quiet depth of those relationships and the appetite for expanded cooperation in areas including industrial resilience, information technology, energy, agriculture and public health.
Lin acknowledged that Beijing is likely to protest the visit but was direct about Taiwan’s position of accepting invitations from diplomatic allies as a natural exercise of sovereignty and any Chinese reaction would not affect Taiwan’s relationship with Eswatini. On the question of a potential transit through the mainland United States, a diplomatic practice of past Taiwanese presidents, Lin indicated Washington’s support in principle, describing the timing as a matter of patience. “We have faith,” concluded Lin.
