President Tsai Ing-wen conferred the Order of Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon on the 70th U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo March 3 in recognition of his contributions to advancing Taiwan-U.S. relations.
During a ceremony staged at the Presidential Office in Taipei City, Tsai said Pompeo’s long-standing support for Taiwan’s international participation is sincerely appreciated by the government and people.
During Pompeo’s tenure he facilitated multiple breakthroughs in bilateral ties, Tsai said. These included lifting restrictions on contact between officials from both sides and normalizing arms sales, she added.
As a result of Pompeo’s support, Tsai said, mechanisms are in place enabling two-way dialogue in fields spanning education, public health and regional democratic governance.
According to Tsai, this healthy state of affairs—reflected by a resumption of talks under the Taiwan-U.S. Trade and Investment Framework Agreement in 2021 and the annual Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue set to take place for the third consecutive year in 2022—augurs well for the possible commencement of discussions on a bilateral trade agreement.
Regarding the Ukrainian situation, Tsai said Taiwan has joined international economic sanctions against Russia. It has also provided the East European country with humanitarian aid and will continue to work with the U.S. to help promote more democratic success stories.
In response, Pompeo praised Tsai for providing the people of Taiwan with freedom, prosperity and stability in a noble way. What is taking place in Europe illustrates the risk of complacency when it comes to freedom, he said.
Deep, concerted and focused leadership is the best way of safeguarding this shared value, Pompeo said, assuring that the American people stand with Tsai in this regard.
In a tweet on its official Twitter account, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said “Minister Wu was delighted to accompany @iingwen as she received the 70th #US Secretary of State @MikePompeo & his wife Susan at the Presidential Office. It’s reassuring to have like-minded partners & true believers in freedom & democracy visiting #Taiwan amid global crisis.” (SFC-E)
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