NEW YORK/TAIPEH (Reuters) - Relations between the United States and Taiwan are closer than ever, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen told supporters during a stopover in New York.
According to Taipei and Washington, this pause has not yet provoked any unusual military actions on the part of China.
Tsai arrived in New York on Wednesday on her way to Central America. On her way back to Taipei next week, she will stop in Los Angeles where she is expected to meet Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, a meeting that China has warned could lead to a "dangerous confrontation". On US-China Relations.
The visit comes at a time when US relations with China have reached what some analysts consider their worst level since Washington normalized relations with Beijing in 1979 and revoked diplomatic recognition of Taipei.
In her first stop in the United States since 2019, Tsai touted Taiwan's economic, security and diplomatic achievements in a closed-door speech on Wednesday night to overseas Taiwanese in New York, according to a statement released by her office on Thursday. The island has been described as "the beacon of democracy in Asia".
"In particular, the relations between Taiwan and the United States are closer than ever," Tsai said, noting that "considerable progress" has been made in economic and security cooperation.
Sources said Tsai was scheduled to speak at an event at a Hudson Institute think tank on Thursday, but Taiwan's de facto embassy in the United States said all its engagements in New York were closed and newspaper representatives and the public were not allowed to attend.
The Taiwan Ministry of Defense said, in its daily update on Chinese military activities, that from Wednesday morning to Thursday, it had not detected any Chinese aircraft entering the Taiwan air defense zone or crossing the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, which represents an unofficial boundary.
وقال مسؤول أمني كبير في تايوان في وقت سابق إن الجزيرة تتوقع رد فعل أقل حدة من بكين على اجتماع تساي مع مكارثي مما كان عليه عندما زارت رئيسة مجلس النواب آنذاك نانسي بيلوسي تايبه العام الماضي، الأمر الذي دفع الصين إلى إجراء تدريبات عسكرية كبيرة.
وقال البيت الأبيض، الذي حث الصين يوم الأربعاء على عدم استخدام توقف تساي "العادي" في الولايات المتحدة ذريعة لزيادة النشاط العدواني ضد تايوان، وأضاف أيضا أنه لم ير "أي رد فعل ملموس" بعد من جانب الصين.
وسيكون الاجتماع مع مكارثي هو الأول بين زعيم تايواني ورئيس مجلس النواب الأمريكي على الأراضي الأمريكية، على الرغم من أنه يُنظر له على أنه بديل أقل استفزازا لزيارة مكارثي لتايوان، وهو أمر قال إنه يأمل في القيام به.
وتحتفظ واشنطن، مثل معظم دول العالم، بعلاقات غير رسمية فقط مع تايبه، لكن القانون الأمريكي يطلب من الحكومة تزويد الجزيرة بوسائل للدفاع عن نفسها ويسهل زيارات التوقف غير الرسمية.
(Prepared by Muhammad Muhammadin for the Arabic Bulletin - Edited by Mahmoud Reda Murad)