US President Donald Trump and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), as well as Cabinet-level officials from Taiwan and the US, should meet each other to discuss issues of mutual interest, former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage said in a paper published by US think tank Project 2049 on Friday.
In a paper titled US-Taiwan Relations in a Sea of Change: Navigating Toward a Brighter Future, coauthored with Ian Easton and Mark Stokes, Armitage made policy recommendations for US-Taiwan relations, one of which is that Trump and Tsai should have a face-to-face meeting.
Such a meeting should address issues of shared interest and concern, the paper said, adding that it would shatter practice since 1979, when the two nations severed official diplomatic ties.
It would also have far greater implications for the US, Taiwan and China than the telephone call between Tsai and Trump on Dec. 2, 2016, when Trump was still president-elect, the paper said.
The recommendation is in line with the Taiwan Travel Act, which was signed into law by Trump on Friday and encourages bilateral visits between government officials at all levels.
Other policy recommendations all addressed how the US could be more active in its relationship with Taiwan.
“The Trump administration should convene an interagency policy working group to evaluate how best to achieve a normal, stable and constructive relationship with Taiwan over the long term,” the paper said.
The US government should also begin negotiating a free trade agreement with Taiwan that is “equal or better than the ones it already has with South Korea, Singapore and Australia,” it added.
The Trump administration should routinize the process of addressing Taiwan’s requests for arms sales and commercial export licenses to assist Taiwan’s indigenous submarine program, and provide timely responses, the paper said.
The US government should base arms sales decisions “solely on considerations of Taiwan’s strategic and operation requirements, which are inherently defensive in nature,” it said.
“Beijing should not be consulted in advance of arms sales to Taiwan,” the paper said, adding that “meeting commitments to regional stability should be considered a more important priority” than US-China diplomatic exchanges.
The paper also said that the Trump administration should “develop and implement a joint workplan for bilateral defense and security relations.”
“Deepened and broadened defense interactions with Taiwan could include training and exercises, modest ports of call in support of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions, and regular exchanges of military officers with joint command experience,” it added.
The US Department of State should launch a new initiative to increase the number of exchanges with Taiwan, especially ones pertaining to education and culture, the paper said.
The paper also recommended establishing a “US national committee on US-Taiwan relations” to encourage understanding between Americans and Taiwanese.
Finally, the Trump administration should develop and implement US-Taiwan bilateral working groups on supply chain security and defense industry cooperation “to ensure that the cutting-edge technologies of tomorrow are harnessed for advancing shared values and interests,” the paper said.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘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
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
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
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and