Source: Republic of China Taiwan
January 28, 2026
No. 037
The sixth Taiwan-US Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue (EPPD) was held in person on January 27 in Washington, DC. The high-level meeting of the EPPD was cochaired by Taiwan Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin and US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg. A number of senior Taiwan officials and experts attended the meeting, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Chen Ming-chi, Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Isabel Hou, Political Deputy Minister of Education Liu Kuo-wei, President of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) Chang Pei-zen, and representatives from the National Science and Technology Council and other agencies. A working-level meeting was also held on the same day to further cooperation and exchanges in all domains.
During the meeting, the two sides agreed that peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait were vital to global economic security and prosperity. They also signed a joint statement on the Pax Silica Declaration and Taiwan-US economic security cooperation, underscoring Taiwan’s importance in artificial intelligence (AI) supply chains.
Moving forward, Taiwan and the United States will establish working groups on important collaboration issues and continue discussions to strengthen supply chain security and key infrastructure so as to jointly build a more secure, more prosperous, and innovation-driven Taiwan-US partnership.
This year’s EPPD covered such topics as AI supply chains, digital infrastructure, critical minerals, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) supply chains, high-tech talent development, Taiwan-US collaboration in third countries, and bilateral economic cooperation. A brief overview of the key points is provided below.
1. Ensuring AI supply chain security
Both sides agreed to jointly review partnerships between Taiwan and US enterprises in AI technology stacking projects and advanced robotics, discuss bolstering supply chain cybersecurity resilience cooperation, and foster the development and application of trusted traditional Chinese corpora for large language models. Together, Taiwan and the United States aim to shape a sovereign AI data foundation characterized by diversity and openness while exploring collaboration to advance trusted AI systems in third countries.
2. Digital infrastructure
The United States supports Taiwan in exploring innovative communications technologies as part of a multipronged approach to increase communications resilience. Taiwan will look into working with US low-orbit satellite suppliers and collaborating with the United States to explore opportunities with partner countries in such domains as undersea cables and ICT infrastructure to boost trusted connectivity. The two countries also agreed to leverage existing Taiwan-US 5G supply chain cooperation platforms to advance substantive collaboration between industries on both sides in open networks, next-generation communications (such as 6G technologies), supply chains, and expanding into international ICT infrastructure markets.
3. Critical minerals supply chains
Both sides committed to strengthening collaboration in such areas as critical minerals mining and processing, as well as promoting bilateral technical exchanges in critical minerals refining and electronic waste recycling. Together, they aim to provide partner countries with high-standard alternative solutions and jointly enhance Taiwan-US supply chain resilience.
4. UAS supply chains
The two sides pledged to work together to build non-red supply chains and promote the commercial development, regulatory compliance, certification, and comanufacturing of UAS. Before the meeting, Taiwan’s ITRI and the US-based Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International signed an assessor license and services agreement under the Green UAS program. It will facilitate Taiwan’s UAS industry in aligning with international certification mechanisms, upgrading related domestic supply chains, and fostering overall industrial development.
5. High-tech talent development
Taiwan and the United States will continue to enhance coordination through the EPPD and other platforms, working together to further talent cultivation and skills development in the AI industry and exchanging views on the AI Academy framework.
6. Taiwan-US cooperation in third countries
In addition to collaborating with Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, the two sides agreed to explore cooperation opportunities in the Philippines, Latin America, and other regions of shared priority. The United States will continue to elevate Taiwan’s preparedness to respond to economic coercion and support of Taiwan partners that are potentially vulnerable to economic coercion.
7. Bilateral economic cooperation
Both sides agreed to steadily deepen collaboration on such issues as investment review and expediting the resolution of double taxation.
The dialogue marked the sixth round of talks under the EPPD framework since its establishment in 2020. Senior officials from various Taiwan agencies and departments traveled to the United States to attend the EPPD in person, highlighting the continued development of a comprehensive and close bilateral partnership. Both sides stated that the dialogue yielded fruitful results and said that they looked forward to continuing to deepen cooperation across domains through the mechanism to jointly improve the well-being and economic prosperity of people on both sides. (E)