TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The United States will stand with Taiwan, Trump Administration National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien told President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Tuesday (March 21).

Tsai decorated the former U.S. government official with the Order of Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon at the Presidential Office for his efforts to deepen bilateral relations, Radio Taiwan International (RTI) reported.

O’Brien described the relationship as strong and long-lasting, having started at the end of the Second World War. U.S. national security circles valued relations with Taiwan while doing their utmost to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific region, he said.

According to O’Brien, he could guarantee that the U.S. would stand by Taiwan. He emphasized that both former President Donald Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden had stated many times that Washington would help defend Taiwan.

O’Brien also described the Asian country as a model of democracy, rule of law, and freedom, though authoritarian states did not like such countries. The U.S. would be extremely unhappy if an authoritarian regime attacked Taiwan, and he prayed it would not happen, according to the RTI report.

In the run-up to his Taiwan trip, O’Brien became the center of a controversy, when a website misinterpreted comments of his as saying the U.S. military would destroy Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) fabs rather than let them fall into Chinese hands in the case of an invasion.