Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to visit last African ally Eswatini

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will visit Eswatini, the island's last African ally, early next month, the government said on Friday

The country is looking to shore up ties at a time when China is whittling away at the small number of countries sticking by Taipei.

Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory with no right to state-to-state relations, has formal ties with only 13 countries, almost all small, less developed nations in Central America and the Pacific, including Belize and Nauru.

In March Honduras ended decades of ties with Taiwan, and Guatemala's president-elect said this week he wants to improve relations with China while sticking with Taiwan.

Taiwan deputy foreign minister Roy Lee said Tsai will be in Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, from September 5 to 7 for the 55th anniversary of the country's independence, and also marking 55 years of bilateral relations.

Eswatini is almost entirely surrounded by South Africa.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited South Africa this week for the Brics summit, but Lee said Tsai's trip had no connection to that as Eswatini's national day has always been September 6.

"It's not to compete with the Brics summit or Xi Jinping's visit. It's purely a coincidence of timing," Lee told reporters.

Tsai is flying directly to Eswatini and will not stop over anywhere, unlike visits to Latin America which require transits via the US that always anger China.

Tsai last visited Eswatini in 2018, and this time is being accompanied by economy minister Wang Mei-hua, Lee said.

Taiwan has provided large amounts of aid to the small southern African country, an absolute monarchy, including antiviral medication in 2021 to help King Mswati III recover from Covid-19.