Taipei, April 18 (CNA) Taiwan looks forward to enhancing collaborations with the United States in areas such as trade and technology, President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said on Friday during a meeting with a visiting U.S. Congressional delegation.
Lai told the group led by U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) that such collaborations allow both sides to leverage their strengths and jointly promote prosperity and development.
Speaking at the Presidential Office in Taipei, the president called for a “secure and sustainable economic and trade partnership” between the two sides and joint efforts to build “non-red supply chains” — manufacturing networks that operate independently of Chinese involvement — to meet geopolitical and climate change challenges.
The American delegation, which is on a visit to Taiwan from Wednesday to Saturday, focused on security issues across the Taiwan Strait amid growing Chinese military intimidation, including a large-scale joint navy and air force exercise around Taiwan’s main island on April 1.
“In the face of rising aggression from Communist China, we will help Taiwan with its self-defense … We will continue to provide the services and tools that you need to be able to provide for your self-defense,” Ricketts said.
Ricketts is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy.
Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Ted Budd (R-NC) joined him in the meeting.
The U.S. is “committed to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” Ricketts said.
“We want to see peace across the Taiwan Strait; we oppose any unilateral change in the status of Taiwan,” he added.
Coons, meanwhile, said the U.S. would be “present, will be engaged … in ensuring that any dispute, any challenges across the Strait will be resolved peacefully and that Taiwan will have the resources it needs for its self-defense.”
