President Lai To Visit Taiwan's Pacific Allies

TaiwanPlus News

Taiwan's presidential office has outlined details of President Lai Ching-te's upcoming trip to Taiwan's Pacific allies Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and Palau. But, they did not confirm whether the president will transit in the United States as is being reported.

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00:00Well, Taiwan's President Lai Ching-de is going to make his first official overseas trip since

00:05he took office next week.

00:07This morning the presidential office told us some of the details of the trip.

00:11He's going to visit Taiwan's three diplomatic allies in the Pacific, that's Tuvalu, Palau

00:17and the Marshall Islands.

00:19The aim of the trip is to build friendship and build economic resilience and democracy.

00:25These are three of just 12 countries around the world that recognise Taiwan as a country.

00:30That's because China claims Taiwan as part of its sovereign territory and puts pressure

00:34on other countries not to recognise Taiwan as a nation.

00:37It's also been whittling down Taipei's diplomatic allies, which makes a trip like these really

00:43important for Taiwan to shore up those relationships.

00:46Significantly, the presidential office did not confirm reports that Lai will stop off

00:51in the United States.

00:53It's expected that he will transit in Hawaii or Guam, though there are gaps in his schedule.

00:59Taiwan's leaders use trips like this to make stopovers in the US an unofficial ally, but

01:03also another very important relationship for Taiwan.

01:07China has in the past staged military drills after such stopovers.

01:12This is a very short trip for Lai.

01:14He'll be away for just about a week, but he'll be dealing with some of Taiwan's most pressing

01:18geopolitical issues.

01:20That's maintaining influence in the Pacific and maintaining a relationship with the United

01:25States without overly antagonising China.

01:28Justin Wu and Rick Glowitt in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.

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