TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The United States Congress is pushing for speedier arms deliveries to Taiwan and for cooperation in military training, House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairperson Michael McCaul told President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) Saturday (April 8).

McCaul and seven other House members were the guests at a lunch hosted by the president, who had just returned from the U.S. the previous evening. One of the highlights of her trip to allies Guatemala and Belize had been a meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during a stopover in California April 5.

Before the lunch, McCaul used Mandarin Chinese to say, “We love Taiwan.” Following applause, he emphasized the bipartisan nature of the support Taiwan enjoyed in the U.S.

He also promised Tsai that arms supplies would continue. Congress was doing its utmost to have the delivery of weapons speeded up, and to offer assistance with military training, he said.

McCaul said the efforts were not designed to launch a war, but to strive for peace, per CNA. Taiwan had inspired the world with its courage, its openness, strength, and resilience, yet China saw it as a thorn in its side, the senior member of Congress said at the lunch.

McCaul’s delegation on the April 6-8 visit to Taiwan included House Foreign Committee members Young Kim, Ami Bera, French Hill, Guy Reschenthaler, Madeleine Dean, Michael Lawler, and Nathaniel Moran.