Taiwan says Xi-Trump call will ‘stabilise’ regional security

By Allison Jackson

Taiwan welcomed US President Donald Trump’s call with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, saying on Thursday it will help “stabilise” the region as China increases military pressure on the island.

Taiwanese Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi made the remarks in an exclusive interview with AFP, hours after Chinese state media reported that Xi had called for “mutual respect” in strengthening relations with Washington while also issuing a warning about selling weapons to Taiwan.

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, described the conversation as “excellent” and said relations between Washington and Beijing were “extremely good”.

“We don’t worry too much about this whole telephone communication,” Chen told AFP, describing the US-Taiwan relationship as “very solid and strong”.

“In fact, we believe that it will contribute to stabilise the situation, especially given the fact that China keeps on escalating the tension in the Taiwan Strait and this whole region,” he said.

“I think we welcome the kind of effort to stabilise the… security situation in this region.”

Communist China has never ruled democratic Taiwan, but Beijing claims the island is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to annex it.

Xi warned Washington to exercise caution in arms sales to Taiwan, but Chen said the Chinese leader’s comments wouldn’t threaten future purchases from the United States.

Taiwan has a population of 23 million people and would be massively outgunned in a conflict with China. It is heavily reliant on US weapons sales to deter Beijing, but is under pressure from Washington to spend even more on its defences.

President Lai Ching-te has pledged to boost defence spending to more than three percent of GDP this year and to five percent by 2030.

But the opposition-controlled parliament has repeatedly blocked the government’s plan for US$40 billion in additional funding for military equipment.

That money would fund the US-approved US$11 billion arms sale that was announced in December — one of the largest weapons packages for the island.

“The only concern that is going to impact the future arms sale is about our opposition parties’ attitude… toward the defence budget,” Chen said.

“The US has already promised to sell Taiwan a certain amount of weapons,” he said.

However, Chen added that “so far we haven’t seen any cooperation” from the parliament.”

Trump is expected meet Xi in Beijing in April and Chen said he was not worried that the two leaders would strike a “grand bargain” at Taiwan’s expense.

“Taiwan is unquestionably the core of the national interest to the global economy and the US,” Chen said.

“You’re not going to trade away your own national interest.”