Senior US lawmaker says he’s doing everything possible to speed up Taiwan arms deliveries

TAIPEI – A senior US lawmaker said on Friday he was doing everything possible to speed up the delivery of weapons to Taiwan, suggesting that other countries which have such arms could sell them to the island with US government permission.

Taiwan has since 2022 complained of delays to deliveries of US weapons such as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, as manufacturers send supplies to Ukraine to support its defence against Russia.

Speaking to reporters on a trip to Taiwan, Mr Michael McCaul, chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Taiwan needed to be able to access weapons, given the threat it faces from China.

China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province to be reunified with it, by force if necessary. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims over it.

“On the weapons issue, I sign off on those deliveries and we are doing everything in our power to expedite this,” he said, speaking in Taiwan’s Parliament, where he met its Speaker, Mr You Si-kun.

There is a need to “harden” Taiwan and help its deterrence capability, Mr McCaul added.

He said ideas for getting the arms to Taiwan faster included re-prioritising weapons sales, given that the island is in a high-threat area and “third party sales” – getting the US government to allow other countries that have these weapons to provide them to Taiwan.

“We want to do everything possible to deter a very aggressive nation, communist China, from ever thinking about landing on the shores of this beautiful island, because that would be a serious mistake for everybody.”

The United States is Taiwan’s most important arms supplier, a constant source of Chinese anger with Washington.

Mr McCaul, a Republican, is accompanied by seven other lawmakers on a bipartisan trip taking place in the same week Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen

met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles,

which Beijing condemned.

While China staged war games around Taiwan in August 2022 after

then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei,

its reaction this time has been more muted.

Speaking at the same news conference, Mr You said he had invited Mr McCarthy in 2022 to visit Taiwan before he became Speaker, and said he thought it was just an issue of timing as to when Mr McCarthy visited.

Mr You said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s

inability to quickly capture Ukraine

served as a lesson to China’s leader Xi Jinping, likening Mr Putin’s view of Ukraine as a “delicious meal” to one that had turned into a fish bone stuck in his throat.

“So I believe this is a warning for Xi Jinping as well,” Mr You said.

Mr McCaul’s group will on Saturday meet Ms Tsai, scheduled to arrive back in Taiwan late on Friday. REUTERS