US and UK Held High-Level Talks Over Taiwan Strait Crisis

The United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) held high-level talks for the first time to discuss how to strengthen cooperation, reduce the risk of a war in the Taiwan Strait, and develop conflict contingency plans, according to a report by Financial Times on April 31.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd transits the Taiwan Strait in August 2021. (Photo from the U.S. Navy)

During the Indo-Pacific strategy meeting in early March, Kurt Campbell, the White House Indo-Pacific coordinator, and Laura Rosenberg, Senior Director for China and Taiwan on the National Security Council, held talks with British representatives on the Taiwan issue.Sources pointed out that the US wanted to strengthen cooperation with European allies, including the UK, and countries should be aware of the increasingly tough attitude from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) toward Taiwan.The US-UK dialogue on the Taiwan issue was meant to complement the high-level discussions among the US, Japan, and Australia as the CCP escalated its military activities around Taiwan.The meeting was extensive. The topics ranged from how the UK could do more diplomatic work with Taiwan to how to strengthen deterrents in Asia. Meeting participants also discussed what role the UK would play in the event of a war between Communist China and the US fighting over Taiwan. It was also discussed that the Biden administration would provide some information that was previously prohibited from being shared with any foreign officials.A UK official said the meeting was the “highest-level” and “most significant” discussion between the two countries on the Taiwan issue to date.