TAIPEI, Taiwan: As the US Navy asserts its presence in the South China Sea, Taiwan’s leader says its ties with Washington remain solid over the transition from the Trump to the Biden administration.
President Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday that US military support remains firm even as China sends increasing numbers of military aircraft into Taiwan’s southwestern airspace.
“I would like to reiterate that Taiwan will not back down when receiving pressure and will not rashly advance when receiving support,” Tsai said in a traditional Lunar New Year television address.
“As long as the Beijing authorities are willing to resolve conflicts, we also want to have a dialogue with them under the conditions of equality and dignity,” Tsai said.
While China and the US have indicated a desire to curtail the raw animosity of the Trump years, both the Democratic and Republican parties maintain strong support for Taiwan and a tough approach toward China over trade, human rights and its increasingly assertive military and foreign policies.
Tsai’s remarks came as the US Pacific Fleet conducted exercises in the South China Sea combining ships and planes from the aircraft carriers Theodore Roosevelt and Nimitz. The exercises Tuesday were aimed at “increasing interoperability between assets as well as command and control capabilities,” the US 7th Fleet said in a statement.
“The ships and aircraft of the two strike groups coordinated operations in a highly trafficked area to demonstrate the US Navy’s ability to operate in challenging environments.” it said.
China claims ownership over virtually the entire South China Sea and has built military installations on reefs and atolls by covering them with sand and concrete. Taiwan holds Taiping Island in the highly contested Spratly group, joining Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam in actively challenging China’s ambition to exert control over the area, through which an estimated $5 trillion in international trade travels annually. The waterway also has rich fish stocks and undersea oil and gas reserves.
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Taiwan: Ties with US strong amid threats from China
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Taiwan: Ties with US strong amid threats from China
- ‘I would like to reiterate that Taiwan will not back down when receiving pressure and will not rashly advance when receiving support’
Venezuela’s Maduro holds out olive branch to US, suggests serious talks
MADRID: Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has extended an olive branch to US President Donald Trump, proposing serious talks on combating drug trafficking and offering US companies ready access to Venezuelan oil.
Maduro said Venezuela was a “brother country” to the United States and a friendly government. He noted that when he and Trump last spoke in November, the US president had acknowledged his authority by addressing him as “Mr. President.”
The longtime Venezuelan strongman spoke in an interview that was filmed on New Year’s Eve and aired on Venezuelan state TV on the evening of New Year’s Day.
In the broadcast, Maduro and his interviewer walk through a militarized zone of the capital Caracas. Later, Maduro takes the wheel of a car with the journalist in the passenger seat and the president’s wife, Cilia Flores, in the back — a gesture commentators interpreted as an attempt to project confidence amid fears of a US strike, despite Maduro’s scaling back of public appearances in recent weeks.
The comments represent a shift in Maduro’s tone toward the United States since the latter launched a large-scale military buildup in the southern Caribbean. Trump has accused the “illegitimate” Maduro of running a narco-state and threatened to remove him from power.
Maduro has vehemently denied links to crime and says that the US is seeking to oust him to take control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and rare earth mineral deposits.
At an event shortly before Christmas, Maduro urged Trump to focus on domestic challenges, saying: “Honestly, if I speak with him again, I will tell him that each one should attend to their internal affairs.”
In the latest remarks, Maduro told his interviewer: “To the people of the United States I say what I have always said, Venezuela is a brother country... a friendly government.
“We must start to speak seriously, with the facts in hand. The US government knows that, because we have said it a lot to their interlocutors, that if they want to speak seriously about the agreement to battle drug trafficking, we are ready to do that. If they want Venezuela’s oil, Venezuela is ready to accept US investments like those of Chevron, when, where and how they want to make them.”
Maduro said Venezuela was a “brother country” to the United States and a friendly government. He noted that when he and Trump last spoke in November, the US president had acknowledged his authority by addressing him as “Mr. President.”
The longtime Venezuelan strongman spoke in an interview that was filmed on New Year’s Eve and aired on Venezuelan state TV on the evening of New Year’s Day.
In the broadcast, Maduro and his interviewer walk through a militarized zone of the capital Caracas. Later, Maduro takes the wheel of a car with the journalist in the passenger seat and the president’s wife, Cilia Flores, in the back — a gesture commentators interpreted as an attempt to project confidence amid fears of a US strike, despite Maduro’s scaling back of public appearances in recent weeks.
The comments represent a shift in Maduro’s tone toward the United States since the latter launched a large-scale military buildup in the southern Caribbean. Trump has accused the “illegitimate” Maduro of running a narco-state and threatened to remove him from power.
Maduro has vehemently denied links to crime and says that the US is seeking to oust him to take control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and rare earth mineral deposits.
At an event shortly before Christmas, Maduro urged Trump to focus on domestic challenges, saying: “Honestly, if I speak with him again, I will tell him that each one should attend to their internal affairs.”
In the latest remarks, Maduro told his interviewer: “To the people of the United States I say what I have always said, Venezuela is a brother country... a friendly government.
“We must start to speak seriously, with the facts in hand. The US government knows that, because we have said it a lot to their interlocutors, that if they want to speak seriously about the agreement to battle drug trafficking, we are ready to do that. If they want Venezuela’s oil, Venezuela is ready to accept US investments like those of Chevron, when, where and how they want to make them.”
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