US presses Taiwan parliament to pass ‘comprehensive’ defence budget
TAIPEI, April 27 (Reuters) – The top U.S. diplomat in Taiwan pressed the island’s opposition-dominated parliament on Monday to pass a “comprehensive” defense budget, saying integrated air and missile defense systems and unmanned aerial vehicles are critically important and in high demand globally.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te last year proposed $40 billion in additional defense spending, covering not only new U.S. weapons but also home-made weapons such as drones, and said Taipei needed to more effectively deter the threat from China, which sees the island as its own territory.
Lai says only the people of Taiwan can decide the future of the island.
But talks in parliament to advance the proposal stalled after the main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), said it would not sign “blank cheques” while supporting defense spending and would not seek further details from the government.
In an interview with Taiwanese newspaper China Times, Raymond Greene, the de facto US ambassador in Taipei, said it was vital for Taiwan to pass a “comprehensive budget package”.
“This will not only send a critical signal to the international community, but is also necessary to ensure that Taiwan obtains the full range of defense capabilities it demands,” he said.
Greene added that while the United States has already announced arms sales, including the Lockheed Martin-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, Taiwan’s private defense budget also seeks integrated air and missile defense systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, among other things.
“As evidenced on the battlefields in the Middle East and Ukraine, these systems are not only critically important but also in extremely high demand around the world,” said Greene, president of the American Institute in Taiwan, which manages unofficial relations between Washington and Taipei.
Taiwan’s government has said delays in passing the budget could mean Taiwan risks losing its place in the queue for production and delivery of US weapons.
THREAT IS NOT ‘random conversation’
Speaking in parliament on Monday, Defense Minister Wellington Koo said the threat facing Taiwan was not just “random conversation” and pointed out that Chinese warships had been spotted in waters southwest of Taiwan’s Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait in recent days.
“This is an issue that concerns the survival of our country,” he said, referring to the need to pass a defense spending bill.
KMT Chairman Cheng Li-wun, who met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing earlier this month, which he called a peace journey, plans to visit the United States in June.
He said on a local radio program on Monday that Taiwan should not have to choose between China and the United States, but that the world is worried about the possibility of war between China and Taiwan.
The United States is Taiwan’s most important international supporter and arms supplier, and in December announced an $11 billion arms package for Taipei, the largest ever.
China has repeatedly demanded that the United States stop selling arms to Taiwan.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
