Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te arrived on an official visit to the Marshall Islands on Tuesday, which he said was the first country he had visited since taking office in May, as part of a Pacific tour of diplomatic allies.

Taiwan’s president set off on a mission on Saturday to shore up relations with some of his island democracy’s shrinking band of diplomatic allies: three tiny Pacific Island nations that have taken an outsize importance in Taiwan’s struggle against Chinese efforts to push it off the international stage.

Taiwanese President William Lai’s stopovers in Hawaii and Guam during his first overseas trip to Taiwan’s Pacific diplomatic allies reflect efforts by Taiwan and the US to challenge China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI),