The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is in close communication with Washington following reports that US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) did not discuss Taiwan during their meeting in South Korea.
Taiwan “never came up. That was not discussed, actually,” Trump said on Air Force One after meeting with Xi.
A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement also did not mention Taiwan among the topics it said were discussed.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
MOFA spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said, without elaborating, that Taipei is in close communication with Washington over the meeting.
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as telling Trump that he would continue to work to build a solid foundation for bilateral ties, and create a sound atmosphere for the development of both countries.
Earlier yesterday, before the meeting began, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) told reporters on the sidelines of a legislative session that Taiwan is “confident” in its relations with the US.
Bilateral ties are based on the Taiwan Relations Act and the “six assurances,” and both countries have engaged in close exchanges and cooperation in areas spanning security, economics and trade, technology and culture, Lin said.
Premier Cho jung-tai (卓榮泰) said the government is joining hands with society to safeguard Taiwan, adding that the world would appreciate Taiwan’s value, as long as it firmly stands its ground.
Before the meeting, opposition politicians expressed concern that Taiwan would be used as a bargaining chip in US-China trade talks.
Trump has made it clear that Taiwan was not discussed, Democratic Progressive Party China Affairs Director Wu Chun-chih (吳峻鋕) said.
Rumors circulating before and after the meeting that Taiwan would be betrayed have been proven false, Wu said, adding that Taiwanese should unite and not be influenced by China’s cognitive warfare.
National Taiwan University associate professor of political science Chen Shih-ming (陳世民) said that Taiwan and Japan were the biggest winners of Trump’s Asia visit, as the US president displayed a commitment to the region by touting the US’ security cooperation with Japan and its relationship with the Philippines, as well as acknowledging Taiwan’s geostrategic value.
“Not bringing up Taiwan is the best outcome of the Trump-Xi meeting there could be,” Chen said.
Trump and Xi’s conversation lasted just 100 minutes and went largely unreported in China’s state-run media, suggesting that Beijing likely did not achieve anything it wanted in the negotiations, he said.
Trump’s statement before the meeting that “there’s not that much to ask about. Taiwan is Taiwan,” likely defanged Xi’s efforts to bring the nation’s status into the talks, Chen said.
Washington is unlikely to escalate tensions with Beijing because pushing China into forming a stronger bond with Russia would be unwise while Moscow’s war with Ukraine continues, he said.
Separately, Minister Without Portfolio Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮), who heads the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations, told reporters in South Korea that Taiwan has engaged in talks with high-ranking US trade officials at the APEC ministerial meeting.
The content of the conversations cannot be disclosed, Yang said, citing a need to preserve trust.
Lin told lawmakers that the government is making arrangements for a meeting between Taiwan’s APEC envoy, presidential adviser Lin Hsin-i (林信義), and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
Lin Hsin-i previously interacted with then-Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba at last year’s APEC summit in Peru.
Additional reporting by Fang Wei-li
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