Taiwan “was there and made essential contributions” at US President Donald Trump’s Pax Silica summit on silicon supply chain security issues, a senior US official said on Tuesday.
“Taiwan was at the table and was absolutely present in all of the sessions in which one would expect Taiwan to play an important role,” US Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg said at a briefing.
Pushing back against “misperceptions” that Taiwan was sidelined from the US-led strategic initiative, Helberg said Taiwan participated in discussions on manufacturing and semiconductors.
Photo: CNA
An earlier statement published by the US Department of State on Thursday last week did not include Taiwan on the list of participants and guest contributors slated to gather for the summit, which was held in Washington on Friday last week.
However, a fact sheet on Pax Silica’s Web site named Taiwan as having made “guest contributions” alongside the EU, Canada and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
In response to a question from a reporter, Helberg confirmed that Taiwan had accepted an invitation to attend and “contributed a great deal to the meeting.”
However, Washington chose not to duplicate talks already under way with Taipei through the US-Taiwan Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue, he said, citing Taiwan’s “invaluable expertise” and its “essential” role in global supply chains.
Helberg also said the US was “expecting to roll out several new members of the Pax Silica Declaration” in the first quarter of next year.
“Give us a little bit of room to let sensitive conversations unfold on a bilateral basis,” Helberg told the reporter, who had asked if there was a pathway for Taiwan to be brought in as a full participant.
Pax Silica is aimed at building a “secure, prosperous, and innovation driven silicon supply chain — from critical minerals and energy inputs to advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, [artificial intelligence] AI infrastructure, and logistics.”
The inaugural Pax Silica summit was convened by Helberg and brought together representatives from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and Australia.
It is framed as a “positive-sum partnership” rather than an effort to isolate other nations by a state department fact sheet, although Washington has previously expressed concern over China’s technological advances and dominance in rare earths as a key driver of the initiative.
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