The Kingdom of Eswatini and Russia have recently named their new ambassador and top envoy to Taiwan respectively, with the latter having already arrived in the country to take up the post, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Tuesday.

In a press conference held on Friday in Eswatini, Prime Minister Cleopas Dlamini announced that Promise Sithembiso Msibi, the kingdom’s current ambassador to the African Union, would replace Thamie Dlamini as Eswatini’s top envoy to Taiwan, according to Yang Syin-yi (???), director of MOFA’s Department of West Asian and African Affairs.

Dlamini, meanwhile, will become the African kingdom’s new top representative to the United Nations, Yang said.

Msibi, 57, is a senior diplomat of Taiwan’s only ally in Africa, according to Yang.

He previously visited Taiwan twice, as a parliamentary secretary in 2004, and to accompany King Mswati III’s mother to attend Taiwan’s national day celebrations in 2011, respectively, Yang said.

Yang said Msibi is highly trusted by King Mswati III, making him a good choice as Eswatini’s ambassador to Taiwan.

Eswatini has not yet announced when he will arrive in Taiwan to take up the ambassador post. Meanwhile, Yury Metelev arrived in the country on Oct. 12 to take up his post as representative of the Moscow-Taipei Coordination Commission on Economic and Cultural Cooperation (MTC), Yang said.

The MTC represents the Russian Federation’s interests in Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic ties.

Before coming to Taiwan, Metelev, 60, was the deputy head of the Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation.

He speaks fluent Russian, Chinese, English, and Slovakian, and is the first MTC head who can speak fluent Chinese in recent years, according to Yang.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel