Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York did not directly answer a question about whether the United States should defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese invasion during a panel at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

During the discussion, Bloomberg TV moderator Francine Lacqua pressed the representative on whether the U.S. should commit troops to defend Taiwan if China ever moved to invade.

Ocasio-Cortez began her answer by saying generally that "this is, of course, a very longstanding policy of the United States."

Rather than directly committing to military intervention, she emphasized preventing escalation and avoiding a conflict scenario altogether.

“I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point,” she said.

Her remarks came amid broader conversations at the conference about U.S.–China relations and growing concerns over Taiwan’s security.