State Department Spokesperson Responds To Trump’s Comments On Taiwanese Defense

3 months ago

During a press briefing on Wednesday, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller answered reporter questions on foreign security.

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Transcript

00:00conflict.

00:01Yeah.

00:02QUESTION.

00:03Sorry, I'm changing subjects.

00:04Does the State Department worried or have any thoughts on Donald Trump's comments on

00:11Taiwan?

00:12First of all, do you agree with what he said, that Taiwan should pay for its defense?

00:17And second, it raises the question of what the next president, whoever it is, would do

00:26in case there were an attack against, a Chinese attack against Taiwan.

00:31I wonder if those comments worry you in any way or form or another.

00:35So I think I said this yesterday.

00:38It's going to be a tricky few months where I have to walk the line of what I can and

00:41can't say about remarks that are made on the campaign trail.

00:45But I will point out that Taiwan has been paying for its own defense.

00:50Taiwan has been purchasing military equipment from the United States to the tune of billions

00:57of dollars.

00:59And the military equipment they have purchased supports American manufacturing, supports

01:03American industry, supports American technology.

01:06So the purchases that they have made not only are important, we believe, to regional security,

01:14but are important to the United States economy.

01:16Now there is money that was contained in the recently passed supplemental bill that

01:20gives us for, I believe, the first time the ability to provide Taiwan with drawdown authority

01:26and other weapons from U.S. stocks, but that is a new authority.

01:30If you look at the support that we have provided, the security cooperation that we have provided

01:34them over decades, it has been Taiwan actually purchasing military from the United States.

01:40It has not been in any way charity from the United States.

01:44And I would just point out that we continue to believe that cross-strait peace and stability

01:53is essential to the United States, it's essential to the American people, it's essential to

01:58the global economy, and the United States, of course, is inherently wrapped up in the

02:02global economy, and anything that contributes to instability across the Taiwan Strait can

02:08potentially damage the economy here at home.

02:12So that's why these issues are so incredibly important.

02:14Yeah.

02:15QUESTION.

02:16To follow up on that, it was last year that you guys put forth the first-ever FMF package

02:24for Taiwan.

02:25MR PRICE Yeah.

02:26It's part of the supplemental I was referring to.

02:27QUESTION.

02:28Yeah.

02:29MR PRICE Yeah.

02:30QUESTION.

02:31Can you just help us understand, before that, there had never been any kind of U.S. military

02:37assistance going to Taiwan that Taiwan wasn't paying for.

02:41Is that correct?

02:42MR PRICE Correct before.

02:43QUESTION.

02:44Okay.

02:45And what prompted the Biden administration and Congress to make this decision now that

02:52now there would be U.S. military assistance that would be in part paid for by U.S. taxpayers?

02:57MR PRICE It was the – a reflection of our longstanding commitment, but obviously we

03:02make assessments all the time related to what our longstanding commitment has been, to make

03:09available to Taiwan the defense articles and services necessary for it to maintain

03:14a sufficient self-defense capability.

03:16Over time, that has been through weapons sales, as I just mentioned a moment ago, and then

03:21we made the assessment that it was appropriate to provide FMF assistance as well.

03:25QUESTION.

03:26Was that because – did that open up any defense capabilities to be sent to them that

03:33they couldn't buy on their own, or was that just —

03:35MR PRICE I would have to take – I would have to take

03:37that back and look into it in more detail.

03:39Alex, go ahead.

03:40QUESTION.

03:41Thank you, Matt.

03:42I have my own topics, but before that single combination, on Ukraine —

State Department Spokesperson Responds To Trump’s Comments On Taiwanese Defense

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