By David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung was in New York this week and met diplomatic allies on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), according to a Facebook post and a source with knowledge of the matter.
Lin’s visit came after he published an op-ed article on the website of conservative U.S. outlet Newsmax, calling on the world body to recognize Taiwan, part of a long-standing campaign by Taipei.
It was the first time a Taiwanese foreign minister was known to have been in New York during so-called UNGA Week, for which world leaders gather in the city each year. Taiwan, formally known as the Republic of China, is barred from attending official UNGA events as Beijing has held China’s U.N. seat since 1971.
Lin attended a reception in New York on Monday hosted by American Global Strategies (AGS), a consultancy set up by former U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and former U.S. National Security Council chief of staff Alexander Gray, said a source familiar with the event.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry declined to comment.
The office of the presidency of the Pacific Island state of Palau, one of the few remaining countries that recognizes Taiwan diplomatically, published photographs on its Facebook page of Lin, showing him at the AGS reception with Palau President Surangel Whipps and Gray.
Gray served with O’Brien in the White House in the first administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. In the background of the photo showing Lin with Whipps and Gray is a U.S. State Department official who the source identified as Charles Haider, a special envoy for children’s wellbeing.
The reception was held at Le Bernadin, a high-end French restaurant in Manhattan, which has three Michelin stars, the source said.
Taiwan is excluded from most international organizations and many gatherings due to objections by China, which claims the democratically governed island as its own.
The United States, like most countries, does not officially recognize Taiwan but maintains close unofficial ties with Taipei and is required by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself amid increasing pressure from China’s communist government.
The State Department did not offer a comment when asked about Lin’s New York visit.
Beijing, with which Trump is currently attempting to negotiate a major trade deal, regularly denounces any international recognition of Taiwan or contact between Taiwanese and foreign officials, viewing it as encouraging Taiwan’s separate status from China.
Taiwan says it has a right to engage internationally and that China has no right to claim to speak for or represent it.
On Monday, the foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and the United States met on the sidelines of UNGA and expressed concern in a joint statement about increasingly frequent destabilizing activities around Taiwan.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Ben Blanchard; editing by Don Durfee and Stephen Coates)
