New Taiwan Ambassador to RMI Hsu Wei-ming has connections with this nation that date to the very day diplomatic relations were established in 1998.
“The Marshall Islands has been a constant presence throughout my diplomatic career,” he said this week after arriving Sunday and presenting his credentials to President Hilda Heine Monday.
“I still vividly recall that when I served as a junior officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, my very first assignment was assisting in organizing the 1998 press conference marking the establishment of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the Marshall Islands.”
Later, he was posted to the Marshall Islands for the first time from 2008 to 2011 at the Taiwan Embassy.
“In 2017, I was again called from Latvia to the Marshall Islands to support President Tsai Ing-wen’s state visit,” he said. “And now, once more, I have the honor of being posted to the Marshall Islands in a new capacity.”
As a result of his ongoing ties to the RMI, “when Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials and members of the Taiwanese community welcomed me at the airport, the moment I stepped off the plane, a profound sense of homecoming naturally welled up within me. I felt not only as though I had returned as an old friend, but even more so as if I were a member of the Marshall Islands family, coming back from afar.”
Hsu replaces outgoing Ambassador Steve Hsia, who left the RMI last month. Hsia was ambassador from September 2022. He has returned to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei.
The Marshall Islands is one of 12 countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei instead of Beijing. Taiwan is the third major donor for the Marshall Islands behind the United States and the World Bank.