The US is intent on delivering on its commitment to sell Taiwan up to eight diesel submarines and stands by US President George W. Bush's commitment to do "whatever it takes" to help Taiwan's defense, a senior US military official has told the Taipei Times.
Peter Brookes, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, made the comments in an exclusive interview at his office in the Pentagon on Thursday.
"Clearly, we want Taiwan to have diesel-electric submarines," he said. The Bush administration's commitment last year to get the submarines built "was made in earnest," he said.
Since the US has not made such vessels for more than 40 years and has none in storage, many observers in Washington have questioned the administration's sincerity when it made the commitment in annual arms-sales talks last April.
Brookes repeatedly stated that the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) remains the foundation of US military ties with Taiwan, and that Washington will fulfill the act's commitment to supply Taiwan with all the military items it needs for its defense.
He also said recent high-level US-Taiwan military contacts, at the so-called "defense summit" in Florida sponsored by the US-Taiwan Business Council, were consistent with the TRA.
Responding to criticism voiced in Washington recently about the competency of Taiwan's armed forces, Brookes said the country's military was "very capable." He also approved two defense laws enacted last year that reformed the military's structure.
"I support this and I believe it will make Taiwan a more effective fighting force," he said.
On a US commitment made last year to sell Taiwan up to four Kidd-class destroyers, Brookes said the vessels would provide Taiwan with important anti-submarine and other naval capabilities, but noted that Washington was still waiting for a formal request for the ships.
However, he refused to comment on whether the Bush administration would agree in the future to give Taiwan a number of weapons systems it rejected during the last annual arms-sales talks.
These include AEGIS-equipped destroyers with advanced anti-missile-detection and combat capabilities.
Also see story:
US commitment to Taiwan remains firm
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the