By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Republican US Senator and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker said Washington’s security commitments to Taiwan must be upheld, following a meeting on Tuesday with Alexander Yui, the democratically governed island’s representative to the US.
Four other senators from US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party called on his administration last week to release more than $15 billion in stalled national security assistance for Taiwan.
The United States does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but is the island’s most important international backer and weapons supplier.
Washington is bound by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory, with the means to defend itself.
“As members of Congress, we have a duty to make sure this law is adhered to and that decisions about the defense needs of Taiwan are based on our joint assessment of military necessity,” Wicker said in a statement.
Wicker also said he discussed with Yui what he called the rise of Chinese aggression against the United States’ Indo-Pacific allies.
“In response — and in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act — Congress has authorized and appropriated a surge in resources to provide Taiwan with enhanced training, security assistance, and arms sales. These authorities must be used for the purposes that Congress intended,” Wicker added.
China has repeatedly called for Taiwan arms sales to end, and in May, following a Beijing trip, Trump said he was keeping a new package worth some $14 billion in abeyance.
However, after meeting President Xi Jinping in Washington last week, Trump said only that the Chinese leader understood his position on Taiwan.
Wicker urged the US to uphold a precedent when then-President Ronald Reagan said Washington would not consult Beijing on arms sales to Taiwan.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.
Taiwan is in continuous talks with Washington about arms sales and had received reassurances since the summit between Trump and Xi that US policy on Taiwan had not changed, Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said earlier on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
