TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — British Prime Minister Liz Truss said in a CNN interview broadcast on Sunday (Sept. 25) that the U.K. is determined to cooperate with allies to ensure that Taiwan can defend itself, but stopped short of Biden's pledge to become directly involved militarily.

During an exclusive interview with CNN, Jake Tapper asked Truss if the U.K. is willing to match Biden's pledge made last week to defend Taiwan militarily if China invades, a pledge that the White House walked back by saying there was no change in U.S. policy toward Taiwan. Truss responded by saying that the U.K. is first working with G7 allies on reducing their strategic dependence on China.

Secondly, Truss said that it is vital to ensure that the U.K. is "standing by its democratic allies around the world." She added that her country is determined to work with its allies to ensure that "Taiwan is able to defend itself."

When pressed by Tapper on whether she would be willing to go on record as Biden had done in declaring a willingness to defend Taiwan militarily if China attacked, Truss said that she has made it clear that "all of our allies need to make sure Taiwan is able to defend itself."

She said that ensuring Taiwan's self-defense capabilities are very important and that the West needs to "learn the lessons from Ukraine." Truss explained that one of these lessons included failing to adequately counter Russian aggression early on, which emboldened Putin to "start this appalling war."

Truss then cited Japan, the U.S., and Canada as key allies in the Indo-Pacific region that the U.K. works with to "make sure we have a common response." The prime minister said that she had discussed the matter with Biden and is continuing to coordinate with allies.