Taiwan, U.S. to agree several areas of economic security cooperation: MOEA

Taipei, Jan. 28 (CNA) Taiwan and the United States have reached consensus in several areas to strengthen economic security cooperation during talks under the Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue (EPPD) on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

In a statement Wednesday, the MOEA said one area of consensus was to push for AI and advanced robotics partnerships between Taiwanese and American companies and forge ties to develop relatable large language model (LLM) applications for traditional Chinese language databanks.

Also targeted was digital infrastructure, with the two sides agreeing to explore low orbit satellite development, ensure underseas cable safety and strengthen information and communications infrastructure and open networking and 6G technologies, the MOEA said.

Taiwan and the U.S. will also collaborate on critical mineral exploration and refining, as well as strengthening cooperation in a drone supply chain to reduce dependence on China, the MOEA said.

Before the EPPD talks were held, Taiwan's government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute signed an agreement with the U.S.-based Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) in drone cooperation, according to the agency.

Others areas targeted for cooperation were cultivating AI talent, promoting regional economic development, expediting investment application reviews, and addressing double taxation problems.

The Tuesday meeting in Washington, D.C., was the sixth round of talks under the EPPD framework launched in 2020 and the first since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025.

The two sides also signed the "Joint Statement of the Pax Silica Declaration and U.S.-Taiwan Cooperation on Economic Security" to demonstrate Taiwan's critical role in the global AI supply chain, the MOEA said.

"Pax Silica" is a U.S.-led initiative focused on coordinating trusted supply chains for advanced technologies, whose initial eight signatories (now 11) did not include Taiwan, the world's leading producer of advanced semiconductors.