By Joseph Yeh
TAIPEI, Taiwan, (CNA) – Saint Lucia’s minister for external affairs, international trade, civil aviation and diaspora affairs, Alva R. Baptiste will visit Taiwan next week to meet with president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to discuss mutual cooperation projects, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Sunday.
Minister Baptiste and an accompanying delegation will visit Taiwan from Monday to Friday on what will be his fourth trip to the country, MOFA said in a press release.
Aside from meeting with president Tsai, Baptiste will also meet with foreign minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and pay a trip to the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, and a local flight academy, it said.
Because Baptiste’s delegation will include minister for youth development and sports, Kenson Casimir, the group will also visit Taiwan’s Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association, it said.
Other members of the delegation include his wife and St Lucian Senator Lisa C. Jawahir, according to MOFA.
MOFA said Baptiste has for years supported Taiwan’s participation in the international arena, including writing letters to the World Health Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, Interpol, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to call for Taiwan’s participation as an observer.
The Republic of China, the official name of Taiwan, and Saint Lucia first established diplomatic relations in 1984, but the ties were broken in 1997 when the Caribbean country switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
In April 2007, Taiwan and Saint Lucia reestablished diplomatic relations, and China consequently severed its formal ties with the latter.