US approves $429m arms sale to Taiwan, the first under Trump

WASHINGTON – The US approved the sale of fighter jet and other aircraft parts to Taiwan for US$330 million (S$429 million) on Nov 14, marking the first such transaction since President Donald Trump took office in January, drawing thanks from Taipei and anger in Beijing.

“The proposed sale will improve the recipient’s capability to meet current and future threats by maintaining the operational readiness of the recipient’s fleet of F-16, C-130” and other aircraft, the Pentagon said in a statement.

Washington has formal diplomatic ties with Beijing, but maintains unofficial ties with Taiwan and is the island’s most important arms supplier.

The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.

Taiwan’s presidential office, noting that the arms sale was the first announced by the current administration, thanked the US government for continuing the policy of regularised arms sales to Taiwan and supporting the island in enhancing its self-defence capabilities and resilience.

“The deepening of the Taiwan-US security partnership is an important cornerstone of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” presidential office spokeswoman Karen Kuo said in a statement.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said in a statement that it expected the sale to “take effect” within one month.

The provision of the parts will help maintain the air force’s fighter readiness and bolster air defences, strengthen defensive resilience and enhance the island’s ability to respond to China’s “grey-zone” incursions, the ministry said.

China’s military stages regular missions into the waters and skies around Taiwan, which the government in Taipei terms “grey-zone” activities designed to pressure the island but which stop short of actual combat.

China expressed anger, as it always does with US arms sales to Taiwan.

“The Taiwan question is the core of China’s core interests and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has not ruled out the use of force to take control of the island.

Taiwan’s government strongly objects to Beijing’s sovereignty claims and says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

Mr Trump says Chinese President Xi Jinping has told him

he will not invade Taiwan

while the Republican leader is in office.

The announcement of the possible arms sale comes after

Mr Trump and Mr Xi met

in late October in South Korea in an effort to secure a trade deal.

Ahead of the meeting, there was a fear in Taipei that there could have been some sort of “selling out” of Taiwan’s interests by Mr Trump to Mr Xi. REUTERS