The US Republican National Committee (RNC) on Friday approved a resolution giving full support to US President Donald Trump’s arms sales to Taiwan.
The resolution was one of 12 adopted during the annual RNC summer meeting, held from Wednesday to yesterday in Nashville, Tennessee.
It came two months after the Trump administration announced a US$1.42 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, the first since Trump took office in January.
The resolution said that the close friendship between the US and Taiwan was cemented during the Cold War and has endured for more than 65 years through many shifts in Asia’s geopolitical landscape.
Based on the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) of 1979, it is the policy of the US to provide Taiwan with defensive arms and to maintain its capacity to resist any force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the nation’s security or social and economic systems, it said.
It is stated in former US President Ronald Reagan’s 1982 “Six Assurances” that the US will not set a date for termination of arms sales to Taiwan and that the US would not consult with the People’s Republic of China in advance before making decisions about US arms sales to Taiwan.
The resolution is the latest move by the Republican Party to support Taiwan.
Last year, the party reaffirmed the six assurances and reiterated the TRA as the basis of Taiwan-US ties.
Last year, the US Congress also adopted resolutions reaffirming the TRA and the six assurances as the cornerstones of US-Taiwan relations.
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