Taiwan is building out a drone training program aimed at its Pacific diplomatic partners, a quiet but real push to deepen ties in a region China is contesting.

• A new nonprofit drone academy, GUAVA, finishes its legal registration next week and will open offices in Taipei and Chiayi by the end of the year.
• Palau, the Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu signed agreements with Taiwan at this year's Pacific Islands Forum summit to send people for drone pilot training.
• Training is expected to start with the Pacific allies late this year or early next, with capacity for 30 trainees at a time.
• The academy is funded entirely by private money, with its board picked privately, which lets Taiwan work with countries that do not formally recognize it.
• Overseas offices are possible later, but only where cooperation turns out to be frequent enough to justify one.

Outlook: The first group of Pacific trainees should arrive within months, turning drone skills into a new lever in Taiwan's competition with China for friends in the region.