President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday reiterated his call on the US to sell F-16C/D aircraft to Taiwan during a meeting with American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt and emphasized the importance of maintaining a balance of military strength across the Taiwan Strait.
The procurement of weapons conforms to the Taiwan Relations Act, Ma said, adding that the fighter aircraft would replace an aging fleet and would only be used for defensive purposes.
“The defense budget failed to reach 3 percent of GDP, but that budget is still more than the budget for last year ... The government will continue efforts to make sure the budget for national defense meets demands,” Ma said at the Presidential Office.
Photo: CNA
According to official figures, the defense budget last year was NT$297.4 billion (US$9.3 billion), compared with NT$297.2 billion this year. However, when asked for clarification, the Presidential Office told the Taipei Times that once subsidies for veterans’ housing and other expenditures not directly related to defense were factored in, the total budget for this year was NT$374.8 billion.
Burghardt, who arrived in Taipei on Sunday for a five-day visit, remained noncommittal on the 66 F-16C/Ds requested by Taipei and said he “didn’t come this time with any kind of special message from Washington.”
In his meeting with Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday, Burghardt said that arms sales to Taiwan would continue, while describing the fighter aircraft sale as “an old subject.”
Ma, who said Washington has remained unwilling to accept a letter of request for the F-16C/Ds, thanked the US for releasing two arms procurement packages in 2008 and last year — both leftovers from former US president George W. Bush’s administration — to help Taiwan maintain its necessary defense capabilities.
Ma also thanked the US for assisting in Taiwan’s plan to join the International Civil Aviation Organization, saying air travel was becoming increasingly important now that the number of weekly cross-strait flights has increased from 370 to 558.
He also pointed to what he referred to as achievements in improving cross-strait relations and said the two sides would address issues such as investment protection, a dispute-resolution mechanism and nuclear security in cross-strait negotiations later this year.
Commenting on January’s presidential and legislative elections, Burghardt said the AIT congratulated Taiwan for its success in developing a real democracy and said that the US remained neutral on Taiwan’s elections.
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Typhoon Bavi was expected to have its strongest impact on Taiwan from last night through daytime today, with its storm circle forecast to reach areas from New Taipei City’s northeast coast to Yilan and Hualien counties early today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 6pm yesterday, the center of the typhoon was about 590km east of Taiwan’s southernmost tip at Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), moving northwest at 26kph, the CWA said. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 155kph near its center, with gusts reaching 191kph. It had a radius of 380km. A land warning, issued at 5:30am yesterday, remains in
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APPLICATIONS: The robots are capable of disaster and firefighting response, autonomous navigation, swarm operations as well as underground tunnel inspections, the ministry said The Ministry of Economic Affairs is working with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and industry partners to create a homegrown program to develop four-legged robots to tap into the US$4 billion global robot dog market. The initiative aims to leverage Taiwan’s strengths in information and communications technology, semiconductors and precision machinery to build indigenous technologies and a non-China supply chain, the ministry said. Technology is evolving from robotic arms to wheeled, quadruped and humanoid robots with autonomous mobility capabilities, it said. Driven by rapid advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI), visual recognition, sensors and high-performance computing, robots are now capable of
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