TPP chair holds meetings with NSC, AIT officials in Washington

Washington, Jan. 12 (CNA) A delegation led by opposition Taiwan People's Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) held meetings in Washington, D.C. on Monday with officials from the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) and the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).

The four-person TPP delegation, which departed Taiwan on Sunday, arrived at the NSC's headquarters in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at 10 a.m. Monday accompanied by AIT Managing Director Ingrid Larson and remained for around one hour.

At 1 p.m., the group held a second meeting at AIT's Washington headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, which was also attended by State Department China and Taiwan analyst Jessica Drun.

Huang declined take questions from reporters when leaving about two hours later or confirm whether issues such as the government's special defense budget -- which the U.S. supports, but which the TPP has joined the main opposition Kuomintang in blocking -- had come up during the meetings.

The TPP delegation, which also includes TPP legislative caucus director Chen Chih-han (陳智菡), former TPP International Department head Lin Tzu-yu (林子宇), and TPP member Wang An-hsiang (王安祥), was scheduled to depart Washington, D.C. on Monday evening.

Huang previously said the delegation plans to hold a news conference after its return to Taiwan on Wednesday morning (Taipei time) to brief the public on the trip's results.