WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) joined POLITICO's Playbook Deep Dive podcast with Ryan Lizza today to discuss a broad range of developments in foreign policy, including his visit to East and Southeast Asia last week with a bipartisan congressional delegation. 

Senator Coons and the Biden administration are prioritizing security in the Indo-Pacific security and reaffirming America’s commitment to Taiwan. Last month, Congress passed a bipartisan $95 billion package providing foreign aid, which included $8.1 billion for the Indo-Pacific.

POLITICO: Chris Coons has thoughts on Gaza, the border, and Biden’s age

SENATOR COONS: I went to Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia. And I was already well aware of the central role that Taiwan plays in the global semiconductor industry. In the Philippines, I visited a semiconductor chip testing and packaging plant. And one of our initiatives in the Philippines is the development of something called the Luzon Economic Corridor, which will help further integrate the Philippine economy into the region, and helps strengthen their connections to semiconductor chip production, both in the United States and in Taiwan. 

…

Taiwan has a robust, vibrant democracy, and one of the things that I think is not news, but is worth repeating, is that part of why Taiwan is such a challenge to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] is that it demonstrates that in a country of 23 million people, it is possible for them to have a robust, growing, stable, prosperous, free-enterprise system that is a democracy. So, the argument that the only way for the Chinese people to govern themselves and to be organized is in an authoritarian communist state faces stiff competition from the thriving example of Taiwan.

…

Over the last two years, President Biden has done a lot of hard work to pull together 50 countries around the world to both enforce sanctions against Russia and deliver support for Ukrainian refugees, financial support for the Ukrainian government, military support for the Ukrainian fighters who are bravely pushing back against Russian aggression. I would expect a similar response to an attempt at overtaking Taiwan through, say, an amphibious invasion.