TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday (April 9) that he would be open to sending U.S. forces to defend Taiwan.
“Taiwan’s not the problem,” Graham told host Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday,” according to Politico. “It’s Putin and it’s Xi,” Graham said in reference to the leaders of Russia and China.
When asked by Bream if he would support authorizing U.S. forces in Taiwan if tensions between Taipei and Beijing continue to rise, Graham said that Congress needs to ask itself whether the U.S. should have a defense agreement with Taiwan, according to The Hill.
“So the question for Congress, should we have a defense agreement with the island of Taiwan? We don’t. Should we have one?” he said. “But yes, I’d be very much open to using U.S. forces to defend Taiwan, because it’s in our national security interest to do so," Graham added.
Graham said he “would increase training and get the F-16s they need in Taiwan.” He added, “There’s a backlog. I would solve that backlog. I would move war forces to South Korea and Japan. I would put nuclear-tipped cruise missiles on all of our submarines all over the world,” per Politico.
“I believe in a One China Policy, but I would be willing to fight for Taiwan because Taiwan is a democracy. We stood with them for decades, so I would up our game and if you don’t up your game now you are going to have a war," Graham said.
Graham’s comments came amid three days of Chinese military drills directed at Taiwan from April 8-10 in response to last week’s meeting between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
