Nancy Pelosi, the most senior US politician in 25 years to visit Taiwan, said her delegation had to visit to make it “unequivocally clear” that the US would not “abandon” the island.
The visit comes after China had earlier threatened that the US would “pay the price” for Ms Pelos’s visit. Taiwan is self-ruled, but China sees it as a breakaway province that will eventually unite with it.
“Forty-three years ago, America made a promise to always stand with Taiwan… today our delegation came to Taiwan to make it unequivocally clear we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan,” Pelosi said, referring to the Taiwan Relations Act.
Foreign ministers of Southeast Asia will seek to find ways to calm the tensions between the two world powers over Taiwan during an ongoing meeting in the Cambodian capital.
Khang Phoak, spokesman for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said the ministers would try to find way the bloc could help “so that the situation in Taiwan will be stable, that won’t lead to a conflict and won’t escalate the political heat between all concerned parties”.
Russian Foreign Minister Dmitry Lavrov says Polosi’s visit to Taiwan was a provocation by the US on China. “I see no reason to create such an annoyance almost out of the blue, knowing very well what it means for the People’s Republic of China,” Lavrov said during a visit to Myanmar.
Taiwan has become yet another flashpoint amid heightened tensions and sharp rhetoric between Washington and Beijing, with the US walking a diplomatic tight rope on the issue.
Beijing views Pelosi’s visit as yet another sign of support for Taiwan.
However, the White House has been opposed to the visit, and President Joe Biden had said the military assessed it as “not a good idea”.
Source: BBC, Al Jazeera, Sky News, NDTV, image from Twitter