Taiwan hopes to hold more frequent negotiations and discussions with the US on purchasing defensive weapons, which not only helps to maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait, but also benefits the US and other nations that cherish similar values, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday during a meeting with US Senator Cory Gardner.
Gardner, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy, told Tsai that he would reassert the Taiwan Relations Act when pursuing legislation of an Asia Reassurance Initiative Act (ARIA) aimed at bolstering ties with US allies in the region.
Gardner also underlined the importance of high-level exchanges between Taiwan and the US, while expressing the hope to normalize US arms sales to Taiwan, thereby consolidating bilateral collaboration.
Photo: CNA
According to an NBC television news report, US President Donald Trump has postponed selling weapons to Taiwan out of concern about irritating Beijing, as he hopes that China would assume a pivotal role in resolving the North Korean issue.
Taiwanese government agencies did not confirm the report, while the military said that the report was based on speculation.
Tsai said during the meeting that she was glad to meet with Gardner again after the senator visited Taiwan in June last year, and that she would wanted to take the opportunity to thank him for his continued support and assistance for Taiwan in the US Senate.
Taiwan-US relations have seen positive developments since Trump took office and the two nations have worked closely together to maintain regional stability, Tsai said.
The president said that a delegation led by Representative to the US Stanley Kao (高碩泰) in March attended a meeting of the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State — held by the US Department of State — and that Taiwan would invest capital and donate equipment for demining missions in Iraq.
She thanked Gardner for proposing the ARIA to strengthen the US commitment to its Asian allies, while expressing the hope that Taiwan-US relations would continue to move forward.
She said that the nation is looking forward to signing trade treaties with the US, while expressing confidence that cooperation on industrial development would be mutually beneficial for both US and Taiwanese businesses.
She said that she hopes the US would ensure Taiwan’s security by continuing to honor the “six assurances” and the Taiwan Relations Act, which were included in the Republican Party’s presidential campaign platform last year.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS