TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is slated to give a speech in New York later this month where she will also be presented with a leadership award from a U.S. think tank.

Sources told Financial Times that Tsai is set to speak at a New York event on March 30 hosted by the Washington-based Hudson Institute. The think tank will also present Tsai with its “global leadership award.”

Tsai is set to transit through the U.S. later this month as part of a planned visit to diplomatic allies Guatemala and Belize. The Taiwan president is also scheduled to meet House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California, in addition to giving a speech at the Reagan library in Simi Valley, the report said.

There had been reports that McCarthy was planning a Taiwan trip sometime this year. On Tuesday (March 7), several sources told the Financial Times that McCarthy agreed with Tsai that it would be better to meet in the U.S. to avoid a repeat of the large-scale military exercises launched by China in response to then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the country in August.

Bloomberg then reported on Wednesday (March 8) that McCarthy confirmed he would be meeting with Tsai in California. But McCarthy added his meeting with Tsai does not mean that he would not visit Taiwan in the future, adding, “China can’t tell me where and when I can go.”

Meanwhile, China has already protested the upcoming meeting between Tsai and McCarthy. The Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., earlier in the week said China “firmly rejects all forms of official interactions between the U.S. and Taiwan,” according to Financial Times.