Representative to the US Stanley Kao (高碩泰) on Thursday said that Taiwan has confidence in its ties with the US ahead of yesterday’s US-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue in Washington.
“Taiwan and the US are always communicating and exchanging information in many forms,” Kao said at the Twin Oaks compound in Washington when asked if the US has briefed Taiwan about the issues to be covered at the meeting.
Taiwan would keep a close eye on high-level exchanges between the US and China, and the so-called “Taiwan issue,” Kao said, adding that he was fully confident in the development of Taiwan-US ties.
Photo: CNA
Washington has reiterated that it maintains a key partnership with Taiwan based on the Taiwan Relations Act, which forms the core of its “one China” policy, he said.
Following the US midterm elections on Tuesday, Kao said he had no doubts that the long-term bipartisan support for Taiwan in the US Congress would remain strong.
“US-Taiwan relations have been advancing stably, as the two sides share mutual interests and the same beliefs,” he said.
On Wednesday, Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪), director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission, told US National Security Adviser John Bolton that “Taiwan is the most important and sensitive issue in China-US relations.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Secretary of Defense James Mattis were to attend the dialogue with Yang and Chinese Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe (魏鳳和), and a joint news conference was to be held afterward.
Some in Taiwan have said that the administration of US President Donald Trump might sacrifice ties with Taiwan to make gains with China.
Relations between the world’s two biggest economies have been tense over the past year, amid a highly contentious battle over trade and differences over China’s actions in the South China Sea.
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