Taiwan News
Editorial
Date: 2016-06-16
By: Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Barely a month after being sworn in as the nation’s first female head of state and only its second from the Democratic Progressive Party, President Tsai Ing-wen will make her first official overseas trip to two of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in Latin America, Panama and Paraguay, beginning next week.

The first is one of the busiest trading nations thanks to its Panama Canal, which is also the reason why Tsai was invited, to attend the inauguration of its expansion. The second is a little-known landlocked country, but it’s also Taiwan’s only ally in South America.

For Taiwan, overseas trips by its president are more important than almost for any other country in the world. In most countries, local media barely report on their head of state or head of government traveling because it is so commonplace and so frequent.

In Taiwan, such trips are a luxury. The country only counts 22 official diplomatic allies around the world, and visiting most of them involve stopovers for refueling in other countries which do not maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]