Trump will adopt similar cross-strait policy as in 1st term: Pompeo

Taipei, Jan. 6 (CNA) Former United States diplomat Mike Pompeo said Monday that he thinks the incoming U.S. administration will continue a similar policy on cross-Taiwan Strait affairs as it did when he was secretary of state 2018-2021.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated for a second non-consecutive term on Jan. 20, has picked Marco Rubio, a Taiwan-friendly official, to serve as secretary of state, Pompeo said at a forum in Taipei.

Rubio "shares my views and love and understands the importance of this shared relationship [between Taiwan and the U.S.] as well," Pompeo said at the forum Monday morning.

After a 20-minute speech, Pompeo was asked by attendees about his views on Trump's new Cabinet lineup and his predictions for cross-strait policies in the president-elect's second term.

During the question-and-answer session, Pompeo said he thinks Trump will continue the same policy toward Taiwan and China as he had adopted in his first term.

"My full expectation is you will see much the same worldview emanate from the White House, broadly speaking, and the American security establishment that you saw in the first four years," Pompeo said. "I don't think it'll be dramatically different from that."

He said that during Trump's first term 2017-2021, the administration developed "what we believed was a pretty effective model for deterrence against adversaries who wanted to undermine the set of rules and value sets that the people of Taiwan and the people of the United States hold dear, a very different set of values than those that sit in mainland China inside of the Chinese Communist Party."

Meanwhile, in his address at the forum, Pompeo reiterated his view that the U.S. should ditch its "strategic ambiguity" on Taiwan, a policy that has been in place since diplomatic relations ended between the two sides in 1979.

Maintaining ambiguity on whether the U.S. would help defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion by China "creates risk," could "mislead the international community," and "increases aggression in the region," he said.

"One of the things I was most proud of, that I think President Trump will do again, is to accept the world as it is, and the facts as they are, and achieve better outcomes, not from some ideal or fantasy, but based on the reality," said Pompeo, who served as Central Intelligence Agency director 2017-2018 before he was appointed secretary of state.

On the question of the tariff hikes that Trump has threatened to impose when he returns to the White House, Pompeo said Taiwan does have a trade surplus with the U.S. that is "not insignificant."

"So you all should think about that as you engage with the United States moving forward," he said.

Taiwan should think about what tools it can use to continue to deliver good outcomes for itself, Pompeo said.

"You should put Taiwan first, as President Trump puts America first," he suggested.

Pompeo, who attended the forum at the invitation of the Taipei-based NGO Formosa Republican Association, is on his second visit to Taiwan in less than eight months, following his attendance at President Lai Ching-te's (賴清德) inauguration ceremony on May 20, 2024.

When he was part of the first Trump administration, the Taiwan government saw him as a "staunch supporter of Taiwan-U.S. ties," as he had approved multiple arms sales to Taiwan and lifted some restrictions on official bilateral exchanges.

Several bilateral partnerships were also launched during Pompeo's tenure as secretary of state, including the Education Initiative, Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue, Consultations on Democratic Governance in the Indo-Pacific Region, and Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation, according to Taiwan's foreign ministry.