Taiwan president says phone call with Trump can take place again

PanARMENIAN.Net - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said a direct phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump could take place again and urged the self-ruled island's political rival China to step up to its global responsibility to keep the peace as a large nation, Reuters reports exclusively.

"We have the opportunity to communicate more directly with the U.S. government," Tsai told Reuters in an exclusive interview on Thursday, April 27.

"We don't exclude the opportunity to call President Trump himself, but it depends on the needs of the situation and the U.S. government's consideration of regional affairs."

The interview was the first since Trump, as U.S. President-elect, took a congratulatory phone call from Tsai in early December. It was the first contact between leaders of the two sides in nearly four decades and he cast doubt on Washington’s long-standing policy of acknowledging Beijing’s “one China” policy.

Since then, however, Trump agreed to honor the “one China” policy in February and then hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida resort earlier this month.

Despite this, Tsai said Taiwan's ties with the United States, its biggest political ally and arms supplier, have been improving. She added that Taiwan may need to buy the most advanced stealth jet the United States has.

"We don't rule out any items that would be meaningful to our defense and our defense strategy and the F-35 is one such item," said Tsai, in the first remarks by a top Taiwanese official on the matter.