Lai currently 'has no plans' to travel overseas: Presidential Office

Taipei, Aug. 27 (CNA) The Presidential Office on Tuesday denied a local media report that said President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) was planning to make an overseas trip in the near future and that talks were underway with the United States on a Lai stopover.

"The President currently has no plans to travel overseas," Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement, adding that "any such arrangement will be reported to the public in due time."

The statement was released in response to a report by the Chinese-language United Daily News earlier Tuesday saying that Lai was planning to travel to two of Taiwan's formal diplomatic allies, Paraguay and Guatemala, and make stopovers on U.S. soil.

Quoting an unnamed source, the report said Washington, however, only agreed to allow Lai to make a stopover in Hawaii instead of a mainland U.S. city "due to the sensitive timing of the upcoming U.S. presidential race."

Despite a lack of formal diplomatic relations, Washington has over the years allowed Taiwanese presidents to make stopovers on U.S. soil during their trips to visit Taiwan's diplomatic allies.

How they were received in the U.S. was often interpreted by the media as a sign of how Washington wanted to handle its relations with Taipei.

Washington has always insisted that these arrangements are consistent with the unofficial nature of U.S. relations with Taiwan and are based on long-standing U.S. practice "out of consideration for the safety, comfort, convenience, and dignity of the traveler."