Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will travel to Eswatini next week, his office said on Monday, marking a rare African visit for Taipei as it seeks to maintain its last remaining diplomatic foothold on the continent.
Lai is scheduled to visit the southern African kingdom from April 22 to 26, where he will attend celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession to the throne, as well as the monarch’s 58th birthday, presidential spokesperson Karen Kuo said.
Eswatini remains Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Africa, underscoring the island’s shrinking international recognition amid sustained pressure from China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory and opposes any formal diplomatic relations with the self-governing democracy.
Taiwan now maintains official diplomatic ties with just 12 countries worldwide, most of them small states in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
The upcoming visit will be Lai’s first overseas trip since November 2024, when he travelled to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau — journeys that also included transit stops in US territories.
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According to his office, Lai will fly directly to Eswatini without layovers, a logistical detail that avoids the sensitive transit arrangements that often draw diplomatic objections from Beijing during Taiwan’s presidential travel.
Eswatini, a landlocked kingdom of about 1.3 million people surrounded almost entirely by South Africa, has maintained formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan for decades, resisting pressure to switch recognition to Beijing.
The visit comes as Taiwan continues to rely on a small network of allies that provide it with limited but symbolically important international recognition, while China has steadily reduced Taiwan’s diplomatic space through economic and political pressure campaigns.
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The last visit by a Taiwanese president to Eswatini took place in 2023, when then-president Tsai Ing-wen travelled to the kingdom, highlighting the close but increasingly rare high-level exchanges between the two partners.
Taiwan has historically provided development assistance and medical support to Eswatini, including during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, when it sent antiviral medication to assist King Mswati III’s recovery.
Eswatini, an absolute monarchy ruled by King Mswati III, is expected to use the visit to mark both domestic ceremonial events and reaffirm bilateral ties with Taipei.
For Taiwan, the trip carries broader diplomatic significance as it seeks to preserve its remaining alliances at a time of intensifying competition with Beijing, which continues to expand its influence across Africa through trade, infrastructure investment and diplomatic engagement.
Analysts say such visits are increasingly symbolic but remain strategically important for Taiwan, offering rare opportunities to project international visibility despite its limited formal recognition.
While Taiwan has lost several diplomatic partners in recent years to China, Eswatini has remained a consistent ally, making it a key focus of Taipei’s Africa policy.
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The upcoming visit is expected to include meetings with King Mswati III and senior government officials, alongside participation in national celebrations, according to presidential sources.
As global geopolitical competition intensifies, the trip underscores how even small diplomatic relationships have become part of broader strategic rivalry between Taipei and Beijing, with Africa remaining a key — if shrinking — arena in that contest.
