Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party said comments by former US President Donald Trump's comments about the island are nothing more than a hope that Taiwan will show the same determination to protect its own security as Japan, South Korea and the European Union, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
„China is the greatest threat to the United States; this is the consensus of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party,” said Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party Secretary General Lin Yu-chan.
„Now is the best era for Taiwan-US relations”, Lin added.
Meanwhile, two senior U.S. senators from the Republican Party asked President Joe Biden to provide a full list of options developed by the Pentagon and the State Department to help the Philippines in clashes with Beijing over a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, Reuters reported , quoted by BTA.
Central to the tension is the disputed Second Thomas Atoll, where the Philippines maintains a rusting warship with a small crew that it deliberately stationed there in 1999 to bolster its maritime claims. Manila regularly sends supply missions to the troops stationed there.
Tensions in the disputed waterway have turned violent in the past year, with a Filipino sailor losing a finger in a June 17 collision that Manila described as a "deliberate high-speed slash" by a Chinese Coast Guard vessel.
The US is bound by a seven-year mutual defense treaty to defend the Philippines against an armed attack on its aircraft or public vessels in the busy waterway.
"We must respond with visible and concrete demonstrations of our support. Anything else risks looking like we are unwilling to honor our bilateral commitments,” said a July 12 letter to Biden seen by Reuters from Senators Roger Wicker and Jim Risch, the top Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee. and on foreign relations.
"We want your administration to provide us with a full list of military, diplomatic, and economic options developed by the State Department and the Department of Defense to support the Philippines and deter further escalation by the PRC (People's Republic of China) “, the letter says.
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Manila must do more than protest the "illegal actions” of China against its naval forces, without specifying what exactly.
According to the Philippine ambassador in Washington, the country has not asked the US for support in supplying its troops. The United States provides the Philippines with limited intelligence support.
The senators' letter said the Biden administration must act quickly to support the Philippines “in countering China's aggressive behavior."