On Taipei visit, US lawmakers urge Taiwan to pass stalled $51.5 billion defence budget
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Taiwan's National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu and the US delegation pose with director of the American Institute in Taiwan Raymond Greene at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, Taiwan.
PHOTO: REUTERS
TAIPEI – US lawmakers visiting Taipei urged Taiwan’s Parliament on March 30 to approve a stalled US$40 billion (S$51.5 billion) defence budget, warning that delays could weaken the island’s ability to deter Chinese military pressure despite US security and arms support.
The US is democratically governed Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties. China claims Taiwan as its own territory despite the island’s rejection.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s proposed US$40 billion in extra defence spending is currently stalled in the opposition-controlled Parliament.
US Republican Senator John Curtis arrived in Taipei on March 30 with three other lawmakers as Beijing ramps up military and political pressure on the democratic island to accept its sovereignty.
“We’re here to enforce that message and demonstrate to the people here in Taiwan that we are together a very important part of the safety and the unity around this world,” Mr Curtis told reporters in the presidential office in Taipei after meeting Mr Lai.
The special budget ‘is important’, Curtis says
“I’d like to personally endorse the special defence budget and tell you back in Washington, DC, that my colleagues are watching, that this is important,” he said.
“We want to make sure that as we invest in this part of the world, that you are also investing and that we’re in this together,” he added.
Taiwan’s opposition-dominated Parliament is still debating Mr Lai’s defence spending proposal, though it has already cleared four US arms deals worth about US$9 billion.
The US has strongly supported Mr Lai’s efforts to boost Taiwan’s armaments as part of a push by the Trump administration to get US allies to spend more on defence.
Concern over China pressure
“We are concerned by the increased pressure from Beijing, including military activity around Taiwan that raises the risk of miscalculation,” said Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Taiwanese Deputy Defence Minister Hsu Szu-chien, speaking later at government-run weapons developer the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology in Taoyuan, said that he hoped the United States could expedite the process for further arms sales to the island.
“This would greatly facilitate our efforts to secure funding for the special defence budget,” he added at the institute, which develops weapons systems like missiles and drones.
The US is currently preparing a second arms sales package for Taiwan worth about US$14 billion, sources have previously told Reuters.
In Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry reiterated its opposition to any form of official exchanges between the US and Taiwan.
The US should take concrete actions to safeguard China-US relations and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters.
China has been ramping up its political and military pressure against Taiwan, including holding war games, the last of which took place in December shortly after Washington approved a US$11 billion arms sales package for the island. REUTERS
