Atlantic Council Delegation to Conclude Taiwan Visit
The Atlantic Council delegation led by former US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper will conclude its visit to Taipei today.
This week, the Atlantic Council, a renown US think-tank, hosted several multilateral meetings with Taiwanese officials, policymakers and corporate executives to discuss regional geopolitical concerns. The rounds of dialogue focused on regional Chinese authoritarian pressures, development of Washington-Taipei relations, maturity of US-EU cooperation and Taiwan’s semiconductor industry.
Since the political climate continues to rapidly evolve around the Taiwan Strait, global multilateral support of Taiwanese strategic interests is becoming more coordinated. Recent discussions from the G7 highlighted a shared interest for continued peacekeeping in the region.
As highlighted by Esper’s delegation, expect Taiwan’s strategic economic and geopolitical position to remain paramount to the USA and EU as China flexes its political muscle in the region. That said, anticipate semiconductor supply chains—Taiwan’s industrial ‘ace’—to force the US to focus on diplomatically supporting Taipei as Beijing attempts to economically compete with the high-end chip manufacturing industry. In the medium term, expect the Taiwanese government to continue facilitating multilateral dialogues as supply chain access opens in the post-pandemic international economy and as global attention shifts toward fostering a peaceful Indo-Pacific.
