TAIPEI: Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said on Tuesday (Oct 28) that he was not worried that United States President Donald Trump would “abandon” the island at his upcoming meeting this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
Since taking office earlier this year, Trump has vacillated on his position towards China-claimed Taiwan as he seeks to strike a trade deal with Beijing. Trump says Xi has told him he will not invade while the Republican leader is in office, but has yet to approve any new US arms sales to Taipei.
The fear in Taipei, which has long enjoyed strong unofficial support from Washington, is that the Trump-Xi meeting this week in South Korea on the sidelines of the APEC summit could see some sort of “selling out” of Taiwan’s interests by Trump to Xi.
Asked whether he was worried Trump would “abandon” Taiwan at the Xi talks, Lin told reporters in Taipei: “No, because our Taiwan-US relations are very stable”.
“No matter whether on security, trade and business and other areas, there is close cooperation,” he added.
The US, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with China, but is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself, and the issue is a frequent irritant in Sino-US relations.
The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is one of the few international groupings that Taiwan takes part in, though it does not send its president in order to avoid political problems with China.
Source: CNA
