US President Joe Biden addressed the issue of Taiwan during his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, pledging to protect the island against any invasion.

“That’s the commitment we made,” he said when asked if Washington would intervene militarily against a possible attempt by Beijing to take control of Taiwan, Sputnik reported.

“We agreed with the One China policy, we signed on to it… but the idea that it can be taken by force is just not appropriate,” he added.

This is not the first time Biden has confirmed that the US would defend Taiwan if it was attacked: Last year, he also noted it, while the White House stressed that the US won’t change its policy regarding this matter.

Tensions between China and the US have been brewing over the past months, amid growing deliveries of American weapons to Taipei.

At the same time, China voiced protest over a number of US policies on the Taiwan issue: Most recently, the US Department of State edited its website, omitting the phrase “the United States does not support Taiwan independence”.

In response, Beijing urged the US to “stop engaging in political manipulation”, stressing “there is only one China in the world”, FARS News Agency reports.

Taiwan, which formally calls itself the “Republic of China”, has been governed separately from the rest of the country since the end of the civil war in 1949. Beijing considers the island to be a part of the People’s Republic of China, and while the US does not recognise Taiwan as an independent nation, Washington enjoys close relations with Taipei, delivering weapons and pledging to protect the island.

Last month, however, US media suggested that American defence contractors had a backlog of $14.2 billion worth of military equipment that Taiwan bought back in 2019. According to the reports, less than 20 percent of the weaponry ordered has been delivered to Taipei due to “COVID-related acquisition issues”.

Addressing the backlog, Admiral Michael Gilday, chief of US Naval Operations urged Taiwan to boost its defence, citing a possible “aggression” by China in light of the crisis in Ukraine. It triggered a painful reaction in Beijing, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry stressing that Taiwan was none of America’s business.