"Arms sales between Taiwan and the United States are not only part of the U.S. security commitment to Taiwan, as explicitly stated in the Taiwan Relations Act, but also serve as a shared deterrent against regional threats," spokesperson Karen Kuo said in a video statement made available to media by the presidential office. Despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties, the U.S. is the most important international backer for democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its territory. Washington is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act to provide weapons to the island. But on Friday after a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, Trump said he had not decided whether to proceed with a major weapons sale, adding to uncertainty about U.S. support for Taiwan.