President Donald Trump played coy when asked aboard Air Force One about whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan if China attempted to take over the island.

Trump said he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping again before boarding his plane for home, and said they discussed whether the U.S. would send billions of dollars of arms to the island that China claims as its territory.

“We discussed the Taiwan, you know, the whole thing with the arms sales. It was in great detail, actually,” Trump told the press pool. “And I’ll be making decisions. But, you know, I think the last thing we need right now is a war that’s 9,500 miles away. I think that’s the last thing we need. We’re doing very well.”

A reporter asked Trump if he would defend Taiwan “if it came to it?”

“I don’t want to say. I’m not going to say that,” Trump responded. “There’s only one person that knows that. You know who it is? Me. I’m the only person. That question was asked to me today by President Xi. I said, ‘I don’t talk about those things.'”

“He asked you today? He asked you if you would send troops?” a reporter asked.

“He asked me if I’d defend them. I said, ‘I don’t talk about that.'” Trump repeated.

CNN’s Julia Benbrook said Trump’s comments were “potentially very significant.”

“What he did say, what he didn’t say, both lead to a lot of questions,” Benbrook said. “Now, this is following that summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and Trump said that he did not make a commitment either way on Taiwan when it comes to the arms sales. Specifically, he said that he will make that determination at some point.”

“Now, this comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in an interview with NBC News following those meetings, said that the United States policy on Taiwan remains, quote, ‘unchanged.’ And diving a bit deeper into that, the United States acknowledges China’s position that Taiwan is a part of China, but has never officially recognized the Communist Party’s claim to the self-governing island.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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