US President Donald Trump said he is not worried about Beijing’s military drills around Taiwan, choosing to instead highlight his rapport with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
“I have a great relationship with President Xi, and he hasn’t told me anything about [the drills]. I certainly have seen it,” Trump told reporters at a press conference on Monday.
“No, nothing worries me. They’ve been doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area,” he said.
The two-day war games kicked off on Monday – nearly two weeks after the US announced one of its largest-ever arms sale to Taiwan. The sale had angered Beijing, which sees the self-governed island as a breakaway province.
China’s military exercises on Tuesday will see it run 10 hours of live-firing exercises in the sea and airspace of five locations surrounding the island.
Its Eastern Theater Command in charge of the Taiwan Strait said it has lined up destroyers, frigates and fighter-bombers to test the military’s “sea-air coordination” and “integrated containment capabilities”.
The war games, which simulate the seizure and blockade of the island’s key areas, as a warning against “Taiwan independence separatist forces” and “external interference”, the Chinese military said.
Taiwan’s presidential office has criticised the drills, calling them a challenge to international norms.
China has long vowed to “reunify” with Taiwan and has not ruled out the use of force to take it.
It has in recent years ramped up pressure over Taipei with military drills and regular incursions into its waters and airspace. Taiwan in turn has plans to boost defence spending to modernise its armed forces.
While Trump has downplayed Beijing’s ongoing drills, his administration had recently announced a $11bn (£8.2bn) weapons package to Taiwan, which includes advanced rocket launchers, self-propelled howitzers and a variety of missiles.
The US has formal ties with Beijing rather than Taiwan, and has walked a tight diplomatic rope for decades. But it remains a powerful ally of Taiwan’s and the island’s biggest arms supplier.
China hit back at the sale with sanctions on several US defence firms. Its foreign ministry also said that any attempt to “contain China by using Taiwan will absolutely not succeed”.
