The people chosen to accompany President William Lai (賴清德) on his first official overseas visit gives a glimpse into his wider Pacific strategy, the head of a Taiwanese think tank said on Sunday.
Members of Lai’s delegation for the upcoming trip include Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) head Ljaucu Zingrur, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲), Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) and Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), the Presidential Office has said.
Think tank Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) said the delegation picks suggests a specific focus on cultural, maritime, medical and diplomatic matters.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
The president is to visit three diplomatic allies in the Pacific — the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau — on a trip from Saturday to Friday next week, the Presidential Office said on Friday.
Lai I-chung said that Austronesian culture in Pacific island nations was similar to that of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, and that the CIP head’s presence suggested that building cultural ties would be a focus of the trip.
Kuan’s participation indicated that managing maritime affairs was also a policy focus, he added.
Lin Ching-yi’s inclusion highlights Taiwan’s commitment to bolstering cooperation with diplomatic allies, particularly in areas such as health promotion, public health, smart healthcare and social services, while Lin Chia-lung’s participation underscores the president’s prioritization on diplomacy and security in his Pacific strategy, he said.
The diplomatic allies in the Pacific are a key link between the US and the first island chain in the Western Pacific, and maintaining solid communication with those allies is key to strong Taiwan-US relations, Lai I-chung said.
That the trip does not include a stop in a US territory has been interpreted by some analysts as a sign of mistrust from the US.
Lai I-chung said that based on precedent, no Taiwanese president has specifically flown to Los Angeles or San Francisco and then backtracked to the Pacific when visiting Pacific allies.
“There is no need to transit the US just for the sake of deliberately transiting the US,” he said.
He questioned the idea that the US did not trust Taiwan, saying that US President Joe Biden’s administration recently approved a significant arms sale to Taiwan.
With Biden nearing the end of his term, there was no obligation to proceed with the deal, yet the administration chose to proceed, he said.
Last month, the US government approved the potential sale of an estimated US$1.988 billion of radar turnkey systems and surface-to-air missile systems.
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