US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
©Rod Lamkey / CNP / Global Look Press
The United States will soon provide tangible defense assistance to Taiwan, said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“The United States will soon provide significant additional defense assistance to Taiwan through presidential powers agreed last year by Congress,” the Pentagon chief said at a congressional hearing on May 16. RIA News.
Beijing has repeatedly appealed to Washington to stop the sale of arms to Taiwan and stop escalating the situation in the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that military cooperation between the United States and Taiwan, as well as Washington’s arms sales to Taipei, grossly violate the “one China” principle and the three Sino-American communiqués, “cause great damage to the interests of China’s sovereignty and security,” and threaten stability in the region.
The situation around Taiwan seriously deteriorated after a visit to the island in August 2022 by then-Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. The PRC, which considers the island one of its provinces, condemned the visit of the American politician, regarding this step as US support for Taiwanese separatism, and held large-scale military maneuvers.
On May 9, the NATO Secretary General announced that the bloc can’t be involved in a possible clash with China over Taiwan. The question of the possibility of such a conflict was asked by journalists from the Washington Post to the head of the North Atlantic Alliance.
