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US troops to see Hankuang drills

The Pentagon has confirmed that US troops will be present at upcoming military exercises in Taiwan, but US officials deny press reports that Americans will take an active part in the drills.

US officials say the troops will serve only as observers and analysts.

US activities during the exercises will be "in the realm of things we do with Taiwan that are consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act [TRA], and appropriate for helping Taiwan meet their self-defense capabilities," said US Defense Department East Asia spokesman Jeff Davis.

"We routinely interact with Taiwan's military in order to carry out our obligations under the TRA. As a matter of practice, we don't discuss the details of those contacts," he told the Taipei Times.

US military personnel will only be at the Hankuang exercises to "observe and assess" the performance of Taiwan's military teams, US officials told the Times.

There is a "fine line" between this and actual participation, which would be a violation of the TRA and arrangements for military contacts, the officials say.

While US military personnel have had observers' roles at previous Hankuang exercises, US officials are angry over leaks in the Taiwanese media of the US participation this year.

Sources say the anger was so strong that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) took the unusual step of apologizing about the leaks to a group of US academics who met him on the sidelines of a recent Taipei conference on US-Taiwan relations.

Observing the annual exercises helps the US shape its security assistance to Taipei in order to help Taiwan meet it's "legitimate self defense needs under the TRA," US officials say. Actual participation, they say, would not be consistent with the TRA.

Nevertheless, officials have revealed that the US was considering active participation this year, although discussions had only taken place at a low level. The officials say that if the discussions had reached a high level, they probably would have been rejected.

While US military assistance has focused in the past almost entirely on the armaments that Washington has sold Taipei, the situation is changing.

"There are a number of things we are doing with Taiwan on the security assistance front that go beyond hardware," an official said.

This includes helping Taiwanese military on a person-to-person level.

US officials complain that while Taiwan has a good deal of advanced hardware, its military does not have the know-how to put the equipment to good use or to run an efficient defense ministry. Part of this, the officials note, stems from Taiwan's having been locked out of various defense forums in recent years.

The US officials say that the Pentagon is especially interested in helping Taiwan's military improve ways to carry out joint operations among the armed forces, establish civilian control of the military and reform its antiquated defense acquisition systems.

Late last year, the US Con-gress approved, and President George W. Bush signed into law, a defense authorization bill for fiscal 2003 that called for the Pentagon to report to Congress this spring on the feasibility of closer military ties between Washington and Taipei, including joint exercises and US training programs for Taiwan-ese officers.

It is still unclear whether the administration will meet the congressional deadline.
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