Eswatini's King Visits Army Aviation Center in Tainan, Tries a Flight Simulator and Thanks Taiwan for Donated Helicopters
Tainan — King Mswati III of Eswatini flew from Taipei to Tainan aboard a special military flight on October 11, accompanied by President Lai Ching-te, for a visit to the Army Aviation Training Center, the Central News Agency reported. During the visit, the king thanked Taiwan for an earlier helicopter donation: in 2020 Taiwan gave Eswatini two retired UH-1H helicopters and helped train its pilots and maintenance crews, and the aircraft remain a tangible symbol of the two sides' military exchanges.
At the training center, the king took the controls of a flight simulator himself. Lai called him a "natural pilot," presented him with a training certificate and a command jacket, and invited him into the cockpit of a Black Hawk helicopter. Later the same day, the party visited the Ministry of Agriculture's Floral Innovation Park, where Deputy Agriculture Minister Huang Chao-chin presented a spray of orchids dyed in the colors of the Eswatini flag, echoing the ties between Taiwan's orchid industry and agricultural cooperation with Eswatini.
Eswatini, in southern Africa, is Taiwan's only diplomatic ally on the continent, and the two have maintained ties since 1968. King Mswati III arrived on October 9 for the National Day celebrations; during this trip the two sides also signed a mutual legal assistance agreement in criminal matters, and a Taiwan industrial innovation park in Eswatini is among the cooperation projects on the agenda, giving the visit diplomatic, military, agricultural and industrial threads all at once.
The Army Aviation Training Center, in Tainan's Guiren District, is where Taiwan's Army trains its pilots, including on flight simulators, and the UH-60M Black Hawk is one of the Army's mainstay utility helicopter fleets. The UH-1H "Huey" helicopters Taiwan donated to Eswatini in 2020 are a classic type that served for decades; after retiring them, the Army transferred airframes in good condition to the ally and backed the gift with personnel training. The Floral Innovation Park stop, meanwhile, plays to a Taiwanese strength: orchids are among the island's signature agricultural exports.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 资料图：陆军UH-60M黑鹰直升机于营区开放活动展示，玄史生 摄，CC0（Wikimedia Commons）
