The government yesterday approved the appointment of Ivan Lee (李岳融), the nation's representative to Mexico, as its new ambassador to Paraguay.
Lee, who took up his post in Mexico earlier in the year, is to replace the current ambassador Jose Han (韓志正), who is heading back to Taipei to serve as chief of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Before serving in Mexico, Lee was the ministry's chief liaison officer to the Legislative Yuan, and he was briefly the ambassador to Nicaragua before that country cut off formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in late 2021.
Han has headed the Taiwan embassy in Paraguay, its only formal South American ally, since May 2020.
Han is to replace the incumbent head of the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs, Cheng Li-cheng (鄭力城), who has served in that post since February 2023.
Cheng is to be heading to Spain to serve as Taiwan's top representative to Madrid, a post that has been vacant since July last year, after the departure of Vivia Chang (張俊菲), who later became Taiwan's ambassador to Guatemala.
Taiwan has formal diplomatic ties with 12 countries around the world.
The only Spanish-speaking allies are Paraguay in South America and Guatemala in Central America.
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