President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) attended the ceremony for Eswatini’s national day in the country’s legislative capital of Lobamba on Wednesday local time. Tsai is leading a delegation to the small African kingdom in celebration of its 55th national day, as well as the 55th anniversary of Eswatini-Taiwan diplomatic relations. Eswatini is one of Taiwan’s 13 remaining official diplomatic allies.
In a speech, President Tsai said that Taiwan was proud to be a partner of Eswatini, and their more than half-century partnership is a reflection of progress and development. Tsai thanked Eswatini for supporting Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations at the U.N. General Assembly last year.
Tsai also says that both Taiwan and Eswatini value education for their youth, as well as gender equality and female empowerment. To that end, Tsai says that the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation on female economic empowerment. She adds that Taiwan will also assist in establishing a microcredit fund for female entrepreneurs and hopes that it will improve women’s status in the country.