Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te arrived in Hawaii Saturday to begin his first trip overseas since his inauguration, and is expected to spend two nights at the Kahala Hotel before continuing on to visit the three Pacific island nations with which his country still has direct diplomatic ties.

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.