The US has welcomed president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) commitment to maintaining the “status quo,” American Institute in Taiwan Chair Laura Rosenberger said on Friday in an online interview with a US think tank.
Relations with the incoming administration were in good shape, Rosenberger said to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, which held the virtual event to mark the 45th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
“I’ve had the opportunity twice in two trips since the elections to engage with president-elect Lai and members of his team, to make sure again that we are in a solid place to continue the work going forward,” she said, referring to visits she made in January and this month.
Photo: CNA
“He’s been really clear in terms of his policy priorities, including his commitment to maintaining the status quo, which we, of course, very much welcome,” Rosenberger said on her conversations with Lai.
The TRA was signed into law on April 10, 1979, by then-US president Jimmy Carter after it was enacted by the US Congress a month earlier, in response to the US breaking off diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
“The TRA to my mind has provided a foundation for really everything we are doing to broaden and deepen the relationship,” she said, praising it as “a very insightful and prescient piece of legislation.”
Rosenberger said the TRA was not only about commitments to ensure Taiwan maintains sufficient self-defense capacity, but also “that the US should maintain the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion.”
“I think that’s an important commitment. And you see the US continuing to do work, both ourselves and with allies and partners in the region, to reinforce deterrence in the Indo-Pacific to maintain that critical peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” she said.
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