TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) September visit to Eswatini will mark the African country’s 55th anniversary of independence as well as of diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the Presidential Office said Friday (Aug. 25).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) denied the timing of Tsai’s Sept. 5-8 visit was a response to Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping’s (習近平) presence at the BRICS summit in neighboring South Africa this week, the Liberty Times reported. Eswatini celebrates its independence each year on the same day, Sept. 6, MOFA said.

The landlocked nation is one of Taiwan’s 13 official allies, and the only one in Africa. King Mswati III has visited Taiwan 18 times since after acceding to the throne in 1986, with his son Prince Buhlebenkhosi Dlamini receiving a master’s degree from Shih Chien University in Taipei City in 2020. Tsai traveled to Eswatini in 2018, while the king’s most recent trip to Taiwan dates back to October 2022.

The Presidential Office said that apart from attending the celebrations, Tsai would also be a guest at a royal dinner and meet with Taiwanese groups working in the country in the fields of healthcare, agriculture, and women’s rights.

Her delegation would include Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua (王美花), Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), and legislators from both the ruling camp and the opposition. According to MOFA, the mayor was invited because local governments were also involved in diplomacy, and Kaohsiung cooperated with Eswatini on youth and education projects.