The U.S. cancelled a planned June meeting with Taiwan’s defence minister, reflecting concerns that President Donald Trump is cautious about actions that might strain relations with China, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
Taiwan’s Wellington Koo had planned to visit the Washington area for defence talks with Elbridge Colby, U.S. under-secretary of defence for policy, but the U.S. called off the meeting at the last minute, the FT reported, citing sources.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
The White House, Pentagon and Taiwan’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taiwan’s President Cancels US Stopover
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te is expected to postpone a diplomatically sensitive trip, initially proposed to the Trump administration for August, which would have included stops in the United States, according to three sources familiar with the discussions.
Such a trip was bound to infuriate Beijing at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to negotiate a deal on trade with China. China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a claim Taiwan rejects, and regularly denounces any shows of support for Taipei from Washington.
The trip, which could have included visits to Guatemala, Belize and Paraguay, was never formally confirmed but had been discussed with the governments involved, according to a person familiar with the matter. Lai had considered stopping in New York and Dallas on the way to and from Latin America.
Lai is set to delay the trip until at least later this year for a handful of reasons, including the need to organise his government’s response to extreme weather in Taiwan, one of the sources said.
Two of the sources also pinned the delay on the ongoing U.S. tariff talks with Taipei and Beijing, respectively. Top U.S. and Chinese economic officials huddled in Stockholm, Sweden, on Monday to resume talks.
The White House and China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Taiwan’s Presidential Office was not immediately available for comment late on Monday night.
(With inputs from Reuters)
