Paraguayan Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare Julio Borba and the ministry’s international relations director Cecilia Irazusta arrived in Taiwan for a five-day visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced yesterday.
During their trip, which is to last until Thursday, the Paraguayan officials are scheduled to visit the Ministry of Health and Welfare, National Health Insurance Administration and International Cooperation and Development Fund, which is responsible for the nation’s foreign aid projects, MOFA said in a statement.
They are to be welcomed by Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui (俞大?) during a MOFA banquet, and would visit Paraguay’s embassy, it said.
Photo: Screen grab from Paraguayan Ministry of Health’s Instagram page
The trip is the first from the South American ally since the country elected a new president.
Paraguayan president-elect Santiago Pena pledged to strengthen Paraguay’s six decades of diplomatic relations with Taiwan after winning the April 30 presidential election.
Pena received 43 percent of votes in a comfortable victory against a split opposition.
His center-left rival Efrain Alegre, who campaigned on a pledge to switch Paraguay’s allegiance to China, garnered 27 percent of the votes, and populist Paraguayo Cubas received 23 percent.
The result eased fears that Taiwan would lose another formal diplomatic ally to the People’s Republic of China, after the number of states officially recognizing it has dwindled to 13.
On Saturday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said that his ministry would invite Pena to visit Taiwan before his inauguration on Aug. 15.
The ministry is also planning to send representatives to attend the new leader’s inauguration, he said, without disclosing whether President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) or Vice President William Lai (賴清德) would lead the delegation.
Meanwhile, Saint Kitts and Nevis Deputy Prime Minister Geoffrey Hanley would arrive in Taiwan today for a five-day visit to meet with senior government officials, MOFA said in a statement.
Saint Kitts Minister of Public Infrastructure, Energy and Utilities, Domestic Transport, Information, Communication and Technology and Posts Konris Maynard; ambassadors-at-large Kenneth Douglas and Leon Natta-Nelson; and Ministry of Education permanent secretary Lisa-Romayne Pistana would join Hanley, the statement said.
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