MOSCOW, Aug 3 — The United States are proud of a strong friendship between Washington and Taiwan and will not give up on its commitment to support the island, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday.
“Today our delegation, which I’m very proud, came to Taiwan to make it unequivocally clear: we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan and we are proud of our enduring friendship,” Pelosi said during a joint press conference with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, Sputnik reported.
On Wednesday, during a joint press conference with Vice President of Taiwanese parliament Tsai Chi-Chang, Pelosi also expressed the desire to increase dialogue and cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries.
“We want to increase interparliamentarian cooperation and dialogue and we do so at the time when our president has put forward the Asian-Pacific initiative, which we support,” Pelosi added.
US President Joe Biden launched the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) together with 12 Indo-Pacific countries, namely Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, in late May in Tokyo. The initiative is aimed at increasing cooperation between the Indo-Pacific nations and delivering concrete benefits for the people of the region.
Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday as part of a congressional delegation’s tour of the Indo-Pacific region, casting aside private warnings from the Biden administration about the risk that her high-profile diplomatic visit could bring and drawing a sharp response from the Chinese government. In particular, Beijing began military drills in the northern, southwestern and southeastern waters off the coast of Taiwan.
China claims sovereignty over the self-governed island and has repeatedly warned against any contacts between Taiwanese officials and political leaders from other nations, the United States in particular.
