TAIPEI, July 12 (Reuters) - Taiwan President Lai

Ching-te thanked memory chipmaker Micron's Chief

Executive Sanjay Mehrotra on Friday for his trust and continued

investment in the island, in a rare public meeting with a senior

foreign tech executive.

It is very unusual for Taiwan's president to have publicised

meetings with senior foreign tech executives despite the island

being home to the world's largest contract chipmaker TSMC

, whose chips help to power the surge in artificial

intelligence (AI) applications.

Lai thanked Mehrotra for "showing trust and support for

Taiwan" in video released by the president's office.

"I want to thank Micron for its long-term investment in

Taiwan and continuing to promote the upgrading of DRAM process

technology in Taiwan," he added, referring to dynamic random

access memory (DRAM) chips.

Micron is one of the few providers of high-bandwidth memory

(HBM) chips used in advanced AI systems.

Taiwan hopes Micron will continue to expand its research and

development capabilities, and the government will create a

"friendly living environment" for foreign talents to meet the

needs of companies, Lai said.

"It's an honour to meet with you today," Mehrotra told Lai.

Micron did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lai's meeting with Mehrotra was not previously announced in

the president's official schedule which is sent to reporters.

Lai, who took office in May, has faced sustained pressure

from China, which views democratically-governed Taiwan as its

own territory and calls him a "separatist". He rejects Beijing's

sovereignty claims and has repeatedly offered talks that China

has rebuffed.