Taiwan Deputy Chief of Staff Lai Qingde will transit through New York and San Francisco while traveling to Paraguay for the inauguration ceremony of Paraguayan President-elect Santiago Peña, Deputy Foreign Minister Yu Dalei said on Wednesday.
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Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) previously reported that Lai Qingde will lead a delegation from the island to attend the inauguration ceremony for Paraguayan President-elect Santiago Peña in August.
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Yu Dalei, quoted by CNA, specified that the trip will take place from 12 to 18 August.
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“(The delegation) will arrive in transit to New York on the 12th, and leave the United States on the 13th, arrive in Paraguay on the morning of the 14th, attend the inauguration of the elected President of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, on the 15th, and leave Paraguay on the 16th in the afternoon, in the afternoon of this day will arrive in San Francisco in transit, leave the US on the 17th, and return to Taiwan on the 18th,” Yu Dalei said.
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In April, Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nominated DPP Chairman, Vice Island Chief Executive Lai Qingde as their candidate in the island’s chief executive election scheduled for January 2024. The current head of the administration of the island, Tsai Ing-wen, who held this position for two consecutive terms, is no longer eligible for re-election.
Taiwan has 13 diplomatic allies left: Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Eswatini, Tuvalu and the Vatican. Taipei maintains ties with other states through its “economic and cultural representations.”
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Previously, there were more countries maintaining diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but in recent years, many have decided to break them by establishing official relations with China, including El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Burkina Faso, Panama, the Pacific state of Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, Nicaragua.
