Amid US concern over a growing military imbalance between Taiwan and China, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has promised to boost the nation’s defense budget by at least 2 percent annually, National Security Council (NSC) Deputy Secretary-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday.
The 2 percent increase will be in line with the projected growth of the nation’s economy, the president said, adding that the defense budget might even be increased by 3 percent if the need arises, Tsai Ming-yen said.
A special reserve fund is also to be allocated for major military procurements, Tsai Ming-yen told reporters, citing the president, who is on the first leg of a three-nation visit to allies in the Pacific.
Photo: CNA
He said Tsai Ing-wen made the pledge on Saturday during a meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, with American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman James Moriarty after AIT officials urged her to heed the US’ concerns about Taiwan’s comparatively small defense budget.
Noting that China’s military spending has been seeing double-digit growth each year, Moriarty told Tsai Ing-wen that such a trend could result in an even greater imbalance in military strength across the Taiwan Strait, the NSC boss said.
The president told Moriarty that Taiwan was drawing up a comprehensive plan to meet its long and short-term military needs, particularly to strengthen its defense capabilities, Tsai Ming-yen said.
Taiwan’s military procurement budget for next year, which has already been approved, is NT$83.3 billion (US$2.76 billion), lower than this year’s NT$88 billion, according to a China Times report.
Speaking later at a seminar at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Tsai Ing-wen said she welcomed the US’ commitment to peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region.
Taiwan can see this commitment as US President Donald Trump is about to visit five nations in the region starting on Friday, she said.
The US must secure strong and stable partnerships with its allies and friends in the Asia-Pacific region, including Taiwan, to maintain peace and security in the region, she said.
She also expressed appreciation for the US’ arrangements for her stopovers in Honolulu, and said relations between Taiwan and the US have been getting increasingly better, adding Taiwan’s ties with the US have never been stronger and that the partnership was important to maintain peace in Asia.
Her visit to the three diplomatic allies was in line with the wish of Taiwanese to reach out to the world, she said, and she hoped to forge a solid cooperative partnership with Taiwan’s friends in the Pacific to create peace and prosperity in the region.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft