The US and China see maintaining stability in the Taiwan Strait as being in their interests as the leaders of the two countries prepare to meet next week, with Taiwan likely to be on the agenda, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday.
Rubio commented on Taiwan’s role in the upcoming meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at a White House news conference when asked whether Trump intended to press Beijing on its Taiwan policy.
“I’m sure Taiwan will be a topic of conversation; it always is,” Rubio said, adding that Washington and Beijing understand each other’s positions on the issue.
Photo: AP
“I think both countries understand that it is in neither of our interests to see anything destabilizing happen in that part of the world,” he said. “We don’t need any destabilizing events to occur with regard to Taiwan or anywhere in the Indo-Pacific, and I think that’s to the mutual benefit of both the United States and China.”
Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing on Thursday and Friday next week for a summit with Xi. The meeting was postponed in March due to the Middle East conflict that started after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran in Feb. 28. The visit would be Trump’s first to China in his second term.
When asked whether Taiwan was concerned about being used as a bargaining chip at the upcoming summit, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) on Tuesday last week said that Taipei would closely monitor the meeting.
The Trump administration has consistently reiterated its support for Taiwan and has taken concrete actions to implement the US government’s long-standing policy toward Taiwan, Hsiao said.
The government has been in close contact with the US government and policy circles in Washington regarding issues likely to be discussed at the Trump-Xi meeting, he added.
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