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Trump to discuss arms sales with Taiwan’s leader

The US president said that he speaks to everybody

WASHINGTON, May 20. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump said he plans to call Taiwanese administration head Lai Ching-te to discuss a proposed deal to supply the island with American weapons. This would be the first direct contact of its kind in more than 40 years.

"I’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody. We have that situation very well in hand," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews near Washington. "We'll work on the Taiwan problem," the US leader added.

Following his state visit to China last week, Trump stated that he had discussed with Chinese President Xi Jinping a possible $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan, but had not yet made a final decision on the deal. At the time, he also noted that he did not want Washington to go to war with Beijing simply because Taiwan declared independence from China.

In December 2016, after winning the election, Trump, then president-elect, held a telephone conversation with Tsai Ing-wen, the head of the Taiwanese administration at the time. It was the first direct contact between a Taiwanese leader and a US president-elect since 1979. In response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry lodged a protest with the US.

Taiwan has been governed by its own administration since 1949, when the remnants of the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) fled there after their defeat in the Chinese Civil War. Since then, Taiwan has retained the flag and some other attributes of the former Republic of China that existed on the mainland before the Communists took power. Official Beijing considers Taiwan a province of the People’s Republic of China. The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979 and established relations with China. While recognizing the one-China policy, Washington continues to maintain contacts with the Taipei government. The US is Taiwan's main arms supplier. The Chinese Foreign Ministry estimates that the total amount of US military supplies to the island has exceeded $70 billion over the years. The current Washington administration has promised to speed up the delivery of arms and military equipment to Taiwan.

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