A delegation including the governor of Indiana arrived in Taiwan on Sunday to begin trade talks with Taipei amid rising US political tensions with China. It launched a barrage of military exercises near the island in response to a visit by a senior US government official earlier this month.
A delegation including Gov. Eric J. Holcombe. Bradley B. Chambers, Indiana’s Secretary of Commerce. are planning to visit South Korea later this week. Officials are scheduled to meet with business and academic leaders from Taiwan and South Korea and will focus on “strengthening Indiana’s economic and academic partnerships” with both locations, Holcomb said. increase. said in a news release.
“Today, we are committed to building the economy of the future with these global partners who are helping advance Indiana by creating the businesses of tomorrow,” the governor’s statement said.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Twitter that it was “thrilled to renew ties with good friends and deepen our partnership with the great state of Indiana in the United States.”
The visit comes after the Biden administration announced last week that formal trade talks with Taiwan would begin this fall. The move was intended to strengthen ties with the autonomous islands, which the United States sees as an important market. But political tensions with China, which has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan, have also increased.
Read more about Asian-American relations
Sunday’s visit follows a high-profile trip earlier this month by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking member of the U.S. government, who visited the island for the first time in 25 years. The other is by his bipartisan group of five U.S. lawmakers led by Senator Ed Marquee of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Taiwanese officials welcomed the visit as a show of solidarity amid harsh condemnation by Beijing.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s foreign ministry official Douglas Hsu welcomed Holcomb to Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it believed “this visit will help deepen the mutually beneficial partnership between Taiwan and the United States and continue to strengthen and strengthen bilateral relations.”
Holcomb and his delegation will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen, foreign minister and representative of the island’s semiconductor industry during the four-day visit, the ministry said.
Beijing did not immediately react to the presence of the new US delegation on Sunday. But China has escalated its military exercises in Taiwan’s waters this month, sending several fighter jets and ships around the island after Pelosi and other senior officials visited the island.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Sunday that it had spotted 12 Chinese People’s Liberation Army aircraft and five ships near its territory.
The Biden administration has said it will continue its own military operations in the region despite pressure from Beijing.
A State Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the Indiana governor’s visit and referred reporters to comments from State Department press secretary Ned Price this month after the visit of Pelosi, Markey and other members of Congress. did. Price called the delegation a “peaceful visit by members of parliament traveling there to show their support for the people of Taiwan.”
He has regularly criticized China’s military actions against such expeditions as “totally unnecessary and an absolute overreaction.”
Holcomb’s delegation includes staff from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and representatives from Purdue University in Indiana. Purdue University announced in June that it would partner with Taiwanese semiconductor company MediaTek to move some of the company’s operations to Indiana. The delegation heads to South Korea on Thursday.
Julian E. Burns contributed to the report.