Donald Trump said he was preparing to speak with Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te, in a break from decades of diplomatic tradition that could set off a fresh crisis in US-China relations.

Mr Trump’s call with the Taiwanese leader would reportedly be part of discussions surrounding the pending approval of a new $14bn arms sale to the self-governed island.

American and Taiwanese presidents have not spoken directly since 1979 when Washington shifted diplomatic recognition of the Chinese government from Taipei to Beijing.

“l will speak to him. I speak to everybody. We have that situation very well in hand,” Mr Trump told reporters in Maryland on Wednesday when asked if he planned to contact Mr Lai before making a decision on the arms sale.

“We’ll work on that, the Taiwan problem,” he added, without elaborating.

Mr Trump’s statement followed similar comments he made last week after meeting Chinese president Xi Jinping. The president said at the time he intended to speak with the person “that’s running Taiwan”.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Mr Lai would welcome the opportunity to speak with the US president.

Mr Lai said if he got an opportunity to ​speak to ⁠Mr Trump, he would say China was undermining peace and his government would keep the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, according to the ministry.

A call was yet to be scheduled, though, a source familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency.

It would not be his first time breaking decades of precedent if Mr Trump were to go ahead with the call. As president-elect in late 2016, he spoke with Taiwan’s then president Tsai Ing-wen, sparking a furious reaction from China.

China regards Taiwan as a breakaway territory and does not rule out the use of force to take it back. It has stepped up pressure in recent years with military drills, blockade stimulations, diplomatic isolation and greyzone warfare of sending warships and jets close to the island.

Mr Trump has spooked the leadership in Taipei by sitting on approval for the latest US arms sale, which was announced after another $11bn weapons package in December.

The US is bound by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act ​to provide the island with the means to defend itself. It doubled down on its support through a 1982 policy document called the Six Assurances, which made clear that China would have no say in US arms sales to the island.

At his landmark summit with Mr Trump in China earlier this month, Mr Xi sought to redefine Beijing’s red line on Taiwan. He stressed that Taiwan was “the most important issue in China-US relations” and mishandling it could lead to a clash or even conflict.

Mr Trump later told reporters the Chinese leader had brought up the issue of US arms sales to Taipei.

“So what am I going to do? Say ‘I don’t want to talk to you about it’? Because I have an agreement that was signed in 1982? No, we discussed arms sales,” he said.

“You know, the whole thing with the arms sales was in great detail, actually.”

Financial Times reported that China was pressuring the US by delaying approval for a proposed visit by Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby.

It said Beijing had indicated it would not clear the visit until Mr Trump decided how to proceed with the weapons sale.