Eswatini seeks to expand Asia ties while navigating tricky China-Taiwan winds

Manzini, Eswatini  — Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, is the only country left in Africa that maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province. Eswatini is nevertheless a growing trade partner with China, which means the country has to be careful as it reaches out to other nations in Asia for new economic opportunities.

Eswatini's recent efforts to build stronger ties with South Korea, Singapore and Bhutan could be interpreted as a move away from China, its biggest trading partner in Asia. The kingdom imported more than $109 million in goods from China in 2022.

But government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo said such a conclusion was presumptive. He argued that diplomacy is a fluid process, driven by a country's interests, and that Eswatini's current focus on developing relations with other Asian nations reflected a strategic assessment of what is best for the kingdom.

“We are establishing diplomatic relations with many countries," Nxumalo said. "Geopolitics is not centered in one position. Geopolitics is controlled and influenced from various corners of the globe. As the kingdom of Eswatini, that’s where we want to make our presence available, and that’s where we want to make our presence felt, where there’s geopolitics activities - whether economical trade or diplomacy or even political processes, we would want to be engaged. ...

"So Eswatini is, therefore, according to our cardinal foreign policy, an enemy to none but a friend to all.”

Being friends to all has allowed Eswatini to maintain diplomatic relations with both China and Taiwan, despite efforts by Beijing to persuade Eswatini to cut ties with the self-governing island.

China has threatened various measures against Eswatini but has never carried them out.

Nearly 60% of Eswatini's population lives in poverty, and its economy was hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic, which was followed by a wave of protests that ruined or damaged many businesses.

Mavela Sigwane, head of transformation at the Federation of Eswatini Business Community, said the outreach efforts to South Korea, Singapore and Bhutan represent more than diplomacy; they hold the potential for significant economic benefits.

“This Korea agreement which has been signed, we are so excited about it," Sigwane said. "It will open a number of avenues for the local businesses to also tap into the available opportunities in Korea."

The Korea agreement Signwane referred to is a recent South Korean commitment to spend more than $20 billion in development assistance and investment initiatives in Africa.

Eswatini’s King Mswati commended South Korea for the commitments and invited South Korean businesses to invest in Eswatini.

Political analyst Sibusiso Nhlabatsi said Eswatini's recent decision to forge economic ties with non-traditional Asian partners illustrated that Eswatini is open to exploring new alliances beyond its historical Western partnerships.

“Swaziland seeks to benefit by positioning itself to be more versatile and a multi-aligned actor in that region of Asia," Nhlabatsi said. "Of course, there are geographical implications to this, because Swaziland’s balancing act between China and Taiwan, together with its new partners, just demonstrates that this can be a tiny country but it’s still independent on foreign policy causes, rather than automatically deferring to the interests of larger powers.”

Analysts said the expanded trade, increased investment opportunities and shared technology expected from the new alliances could diversify Eswatini's economy, reducing dependency on any single market.