President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday met with a visiting delegation led by Thulisile Dladla, deputy prime minister of Eswatini in Southern Africa, and expressed hope for increased collaborations between the two countries.
Relations between Taiwan, formally known as the Republic of China, and Eswatini have lasted over five decades, through various collaborations on agriculture, economics and trade, education and healthcare, among other fields, Lai said at the meeting at the Presidential Office.
He added that he looked forward to seeing more partnership between the two sides, which established formal ties in 1968, in all areas.
Photo: CNA
In the face of growing threats from authoritarian regimes, Taiwan and Eswatini should continue to support each other on the international stage, Lai said, while also thanking the African nation for its backing of Taiwan’s efforts to take part in international organizations.
Meanwhile, Dladla, who arrived in Taiwan on Monday for a five-day visit upon Taipei’s invitation, lauded Taiwan’s assistance in building Eswatini’s infrastructure and promoting national development as "life-changing."
"We offer our eternal gratitude, our unwavering support, and our unbreakable commitment to this great partnership [between the two sides]," added Dladla, who previously served as Eswatini’s top diplomat from 2018 to 2023.
Eswatini, a landlocked country in Southern Africa, is Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Africa, and one of the last absolute monarchies in the world that has been ruled by King Mswati III since 1986.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the