Former Guatemalan Foreign Minister and incumbent Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) Director for Guatemala Pedro Brolo Vila will be visiting Taiwan next week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced Sunday.
During his visit from Monday through Friday, Brolo, who served as Guatemala's top diplomat from 2020 to early 2022, will be awarded the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon by Taiwan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (???) in recognition of his contribution to promoting bilateral ties, MOFA said in a press release.
He will also visit the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and CABEI's Taiwan office, among other locations, the ministry said.
Brolo's upcoming trip makes him the highest-ranking CABEI official to visit Taiwan since CABEI Executive President Dante Mossi did so from July 31 to Aug. 5 to mark the one-year anniversary of the opening of CABEI's Taiwan office.
Founded in 1960 by Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, CABEI is a regional multilateral development financial institution that offers resources to projects that foster regional development, reduce poverty and inequality, and strengthen regional integration.
Guatemala and Honduras are diplomatic allies of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan's official name) while the other three founding members of CABEI are former diplomatic allies which broke off relations with the ROC within the past 20 years.
Taiwan became a non-regional member country of CABEI in 1992 and holds an 11.09 percent stake in the bank, the highest among the body's seven non-regional members.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel