Taiwan’s President confirms American troops stationed in the island training Taiwanese military

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has confirmed that the American troops are stationed in the island nation and training the Taipei military.

Speaking with CNN on Tuesday, Tsai said the threat from Beijing is growing “every day”, while expressing confidence that US will defend the island against the Chinese attack.

Tsai is the first Taiwan President in decades to acknowledge the presence of US troops on the island for training purposes. The last official US garrison left was in 1979, the year Washington switched formaldiplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. However, there were US media reports last year hinting at small deployments.

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According to CNN, the US military posted and then deleted a video in early 2020 that showed US Army Special Forces training soldiers in Taiwan.

In November 2020, Taiwan's Defence Ministryannounced and then deniedto local media that US troops were training local soldiers on the island.

The comments from Tsai came after US President Joe Biden last week asserted that Washington would defend Taipei if China attacked.

But a White House spokesman later told some US media outlets that the president's remarks did not signify a change in policy. The US has a law that requires it to help Taiwan defend itself.

Tsai told CNN that Taiwan was a “beacon” of democracy that needed to be defended to uphold faith worldwide in democratic values.

“Here is this island of 23 million people trying hard every day to protect ourselves and protect our democracy and making sure that our people have the kind of freedom they deserve,” she said.

"If we fail, then that means people that believe in these values would doubt whether these are values that they (should) be fighting for,” she added.

Tsai said she is willing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in order to “reduce misunderstanding” and address the differences in their political systems.

“We can sit down and talk about our differences, and try to make arrangements so that we will be able to co-exist peacefully,” she said.

However, China seems to be in no mood for the talks as it has expressed displeasure over Taiwan joining the United Nations.

The US proposing more involvement of Taiwan in the United Nations does not make sense for Beijing as the Xi Jinping government considers Taiwan as a part of China. "Taiwan has no right to join the United Nations," Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing, told reporters.

"The United Nations is an international governmental organisation composed of sovereign states... Taiwan is a part of China."

(With inputs from agencies)