Belize’s New Ambassador to Taiwan Feels at Home in New Post

Last month, Prime Minister John Briceño made a major diplomatic move, introducing eleven new ambassadors who will be representing Belize across the globe. Some of the names are familiar, taking on new international assignments, while others are stepping into the world of foreign service for the very first time. One standout appointment? Katherine Meighan, the former President of the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She’s now officially Belize’s Ambassador to Taiwan, succeeding Candice Pitts, who held the post since 2021. But this isn’t Meighan’s first time in Taiwan. Back in 2005, she earned her master’s degree in business administration from National Chengchi University in Taipei. And she says she’s thrilled to be heading back, this time not as a student, but as a diplomat representing Belize on the global stage. We caught up with her to hear how she’s feeling about this exciting new chapter.

 

Katherine Meighan, Belize Ambassador to Taiwan

“This has been an incredible full circle moment, on many fronts, but two main ones that really stand out. Firstly, I get the opportunity to come back and come back in a different capacity, of course, as an ambassador representing Belize and supporting the connection and the development and the relationship that Belize and Taiwan has had for such a long period of time. In fact, we are going into the thirty-sixth years of our diplomatic relations, which is a feat all of its own. But coming back to the concept of, the full circle moment, I’ve gotten this opportunity to come back not only to a place that I studied and that’s special and that was a home away from home, but it’s also put me back into a field that I studied actually at my bachelor’s level because I studied political science and economics. So it’s incredibly fulfilling. It’s incredibly exciting. I’m very much looking forward to what I can do and just these opportunities and I get to meet people like you all the time. And I also get to meet students who are living here, and I get to meet a few Belizeans who decided to make Taiwan their home as well. So it’s been incredible just to be here. We’ve been very busy. There’s a lot of action that has been happening between Taiwan and Belize, and I see that in the last couple weeks that I’ve been here and I’m actually very much looking forward to what I can do.”