American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Managing Director Joe Donovan says that US-Taiwan ties are continuing to grow stronger.
Donovan was addressing a gathering of Taiwanese living in the Eastern United States on Friday.
Donovan said that in the past few years, Taiwan has surpassed Brazil and Saudi Arabia to become the United States’ tenth largest trading partner. Taiwan has also become the sixth largest source of overseas students studying in the US, sending more students than Japan, the UK and Germany.
Donovan also said that the US continues to support Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities. He said that to date, the Obama administration has sold US$12 billion in military hardware to Taiwan.
Donovan said that the US continues to support democracy and human rights in Taiwan as well as managing cross-strait relations in a peaceful manner acceptable to the people of both sides.
Donovan also said that there are nearly a hundred cooperation agreements between the US and Taiwan currently in force. These include agreements on space exploration, weather forecasting, consumer product safety, preventing the spread of diseases, and combating terrorism, global warming and cancer.
Donovan said that the people of the US and the people of Taiwan can both benefit from this cooperation.