US President Joe Biden is to send a delegation of former senior defense and security officials to Taiwan on Monday, a senior official of his administration said, a sign of support for Taiwan after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The visit, led by one-time chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, comes at a time when Taiwan has stepped up its alert level, wary of China taking advantage of a distracted West to move against it.
Beijing claims the democratically governed nation as its own and has vowed to bring it under Chinese control, by force if necessary.
Photo: Reuters
Mullen, a retired navy admiral who served as the top US military officer under former US presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, is to be accompanied by Meghan O’Sullivan, a former deputy national security adviser under Bush, and Michele Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense under Obama, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Two former National Security Council senior directors for Asia, Mike Green and Evan Medeiros, are also to make the trip, which is intended to “demonstrate our continued robust support for Taiwan,” the official told Reuters.
The delegation is expected to arrive in Taiwan on Tuesday afternoon and stay until Wednesday evening, during which time they plan to meet President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) and other senior officials.
The official declined to say whether the timing of the visit was influenced by Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Taiwan said last week that former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who served under former US president Donald Trump, would visit from March 2 to 5 and meet Tsai.
The Biden administration has declined to comment on Pompeo’s visit, calling him a private citizen.
Referring to the delegation led by Mullen, the senior administration official said: “The selection of these five individuals sends an important signal about the bipartisan US commitment to Taiwan and its democracy, and demonstrates that the Biden administration’s broader commitment to Taiwan remains rock solid.”
The official added that Washington would regard “any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific.”
“The United States will maintain the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security or the social or economic system of the people of Taiwan,” the official said.
Mullen’s delegation marks the first public visit of a group of former officials to Taiwan at Biden’s behest since April last year,
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