The United States should formally recognize Taiwan as a country, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday during a speech in Taipei.

"The United States government should immediately take necessary and long overdue steps to do the right and obvious thing: that is to offer the Republic of China, Taiwan, America's diplomatic recognition as a free and sovereign country," Pompeo said in a speech organized by to Taiwan think-tank.

"This isn't Taiwan's future independence we're going to say. It's about recognition of an unmistakable, already existing reality... The Taiwanese people deserve the world's respect for continuing down this free, democratic and sovereign path."

Pompeo, who is currently a distinguished fellow at the Washington-based think tank Hudson Institute, was giving a speech hosted by the Taipei-based Prospect Foundation, as part of his four-day visit to Taiwan from March 2-5.

"It is imperative to change 50 years of ambiguity," Pompeo said, referring to the U.S. government stance regarding the disputed issue of Taiwan's status.

Under its "One China policy," the U.S. acknowledges the Chinese position that there is one China and that Taiwan is part of China, but it has not taken a definitive position on Taiwan's status.

China claims Taiwan as part of Chinese territory and warns of "drastic measures" if Taiwan pursued formal independence.

Over the past decades, the U.S. has intentionally maintained a stance of "strategic ambiguity" about whether it would come to Taiwan's defence in the event of an attack from China. This is intended to deter Beijing from attempting an invasion, without the U.S. committing itself to war.

In his 20-minute speech, Pompeo did not say why he did not push for the diplomatic recognition of Taiwan during his tenure from April 2018 to January 2021, but he stressed that the U.S. relations with Taiwan were "a central part of our nation's foreign policy."

"While the United States should continue to engage with the People's Republic of China as a sovereign government, America's diplomatic recognition of the 23 million freedom-loving Taiwanese people, its legal, democratically elected government can no longer be ignored, avoided, or treated as secondary," he added.

He met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday, who bestowed a presidential honor on him.