TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — During President Tsai Ing-wen's (蔡英文) visit marking 55 years of diplomatic relations with Eswatini, she also met with a medical delegation from Taiwan active in the African country for 14 years.

Eswatini is the only African nation among Taiwan’s 13 official allies, but King Mswati III visited Taipei 18 times, while Tsai traveled to Mbabane once in 2018. The team from Taipei Medical University (TMU) arrived in Eswatini in 2009 to help with healthcare in the landlocked country, while also turning its focus to the improvement of medical education, Radio Taiwan International (RTI) reported.

The aim was to upgrade the quality of healthcare, teach medicine, and help patients in remote areas, said Shih Chun-ming (施俊明), the superintendent of Taipei Medical University Hospital (TMUH). In 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic started, the team also began designing a licensing system for medical staff.

Thanks to the Taiwanese doctors’ efforts, patients from Eswatini no longer had to make the expensive journey to neighboring South Africa for certain types of surgery, including treatment for prostate problems and chemotherapy for cancer.

President Tsai met the team and toured the Mbabane Government Hospital on Wednesday (Sept. 6), per CNA. She said renovation work on the century-old hospital showed how Taiwan helps its friends and how other countries could benefit from its assistance.

Tsai is scheduled to end her three-day visit to the country on Thursday. The trip's highlights included celebrations to mark the 55th anniversary of independence, the king’s 55th birthday, and the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Eswatini and Taiwan.