Paraguay is preparing to welcome President William Lai (賴清德) next month, Paraguayan President Santiago Pena said on Monday. Lai’s trip would likely involve transiting in the US.
Paraguay is one of only 12 countries to maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and the only one in South America.
Taiwanese media, citing an unnamed source, yesterday reported that Lai plans to make stopovers in New York and Dallas, Texas, during state visits next month to Taiwan’s allies in Central and South America, including Paraguay, Guatemala and Belize.
Photo courtesy of the Presidential Office
Visits by Taiwanese presidents to Central and South America always involve what are officially only stopovers in the US given the distance from Taiwan, but are often the most important parts of the trip, as Washington is the nation’s top international backer and arms supplier.
Pena, speaking at a bilateral investment conference in Asuncion, said that Lai would be coming next month.
“We are preparing anxiously and with much affection to receive President Lai in 30 days,” Pena told the conference, which Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) attended.
Photo: EPA
Belize is also to host Lai during a planned visit to the region, a government official told Reuters, without giving a date.
Taiwan has a handful of other allies in Latin America and the Caribbean, but several have cut ties in recent years in favor of relations with economic powerhouse China.
“This is to show the world that small countries have the capacity to become major global players,” Pena added.
Lai has yet to go to the US since US President Donald Trump took office for the second time earlier this year.
Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) declined to comment, except to say that it would make a public announcement if the visits are confirmed.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that diplomatic allies inviting the president to visit their country demonstrate their close relationship, and arranging officials’ overseas visits has always been an important job of the ministry.
It added that it has no information about presidential visits overseas, and any confirmed visit would be announced by the Presidential Office.
The US Department of State on Monday evening said that any stopovers by Lai would be “in line with past practice, and fully consistent with our long-standing policy.”
In an e-mailed response to the Central News Agency’s question about US policy on Taiwanese presidential transits, the US Department of State said that stopovers by high-level Taiwanese officials are “undertaken with consideration for the safety, comfort, convenience and dignity of the passenger.”
On Friday last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after meeting with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) in Malaysia that Wang had not warned him against “welcoming” Lai.
Lai in December visited the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau, stopping over in Hawaii and Guam.
As then-president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) vice president, he had also attended Pena’s presidential inauguration in 2023, with a stopover in New York City.
Lai attended a Taiwanese diaspora event alongside then-American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chair Laura Rosenberger, former US secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego.
That Washington allowed Lai to arrive via a regular China Airlines flight, deployed police to escort him to the hotel and arranged senior officials to accompany him to local events were considered visible signs of improved ties between Taiwan and the US.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said the party supports the president’s efforts to increase Taiwan’s visibility in the global arena.
However, the Lai administration would be solely responsible for whatever reception he receives during his US transit, he added.
Additional reporting Chen Yun, Lin Hsin-han and Jonathan Chin
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