And switching now to what is international but soon-to-be local news, Taiwanese President Tsai Wenarrives in Belize this Sunday, April 2nd, 2023.
The President is on a 10-day tour which serves primarily to visit two of her country's 13 remaining allies, Belize and Guatemala.
And while she's soon to be welcomed in Belize, she's been making waves during her first planned stop in the U.S. because China is carefully scrutinizing any meetings that Wen may be having there.
But what's her itinerary looking like in Belize? According to Cabinet Secretary Stuart Leslie it's a non-stop tour of formalities and pleasantries hosted by Prime Minister Bricenco and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He gave us the run down on what to expect when President Tsai-Wen lands in Belize.
Stuart Leslie, Cabinet Secretary
"We are very happy that Tsai-Wen is arriving in Belize on Sunday and the Ministry of Foreign affairs is handling most of the logistics along with the police and special branch and security and so on, for her security and so on, and this morning the C.E.O. in the Ministry of Foreign affairs came to give the Prime Minister a full brief of the step by step, hour by hour, what is going to happen. She arrives on Sunday where she will be met by her excellency the Governor General and then she will be having some activities with the Chinese community, the Taiwanese-Chinese community to here on Sunday night, and then on Monday she travels to Belmopan where of course she will be conducting meetings at the Ministry of Foreign affairs and um, a private meeting with the Prime Minister and his team and the big event, of course, will be her address to the National Assembly and after that then in the evening the Prime Minister is hosting a special dinner in honour of the President of Taiwan, um, at the grounds of the Museum of Belize in Belize City and so those two events are being managed by the Office of the Prime Minister and the rest of the visit is being managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and we are doing this of course along with the Taiwanese Embassy here. Of course, the Prime Minister is very happy. You know some months ago the Prime Minister took a delegation to Taiwan and as a result of that delegation Taiwan generously is helping us with building a new hospital in San Pedro and so on Monday night we are going to get to see the renderings and so of how that hospital is going to look and so the Prime Minister is very happy about this visit and we are looking forward to three days having the President here, three days of very intense meetings and to continue to improve on the relationship."
Join Courtney Menzies and I on Sunday afternoon when we'll have live coverage of President Tsai's arrival from the Phillip Goldson International.
