Chen has first meeting with military top brass

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday called his first meeting with top military leaders in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) was also present at the meeting, which used to be off-limits to women and to which past vice presidents have seldom been invited.

Premier Tang Fei (唐飛), who is also a former defense minister, attended the meeting as well, which was held in the presidential office.

Such meetings were held every two weeks and then once a month during Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) tenure as president.

The military leadership, repre-sented by Minister of National Defense Wu Shih-wen (俉世文) and Chief of the General Staff General Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明), delivered a report to President Chen on a wide range of national security issues, but Wu revealed little regarding the content of the meeting when questioned yesterday.

"According to past practices, the leaders of the three armed services as well as the chief of the general staff will report in sequence to the president about the latest developments in the services," Wu said speaking at the legislature's Defense Committee prior to the meeting.

"I have not seen the agenda for the meeting yet. But I am sure we are not going to discuss matters such as the establishment of confidence building measure between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait," Wu said before the meeting.

Wu added that budget issues were rarely discussed at such meetings. "We believe we will focus on national security issues in the meeting," Wu said.

A defense official, who declined to be identified, said the leaders of the three armed services would likely brief Chen on the latest preparations against possible invasion from China, as well as the recently concluded annual discussions with their US counterparts on cooperation between the two countries' armed forces.

The air force, for instance, may have reported to Chen about when and how it is to take delivery of US-made state-of-the-art AIM-120 air-to-air missiles under conditions set by the US that the weapons be stored in US territory.

"The delivery of the missiles is urgent now that China has acquired from Russia an equivalent of the AIM-120 for use on its Su-27 jet fighters. The most probable site to store the AIM-120s for convenient use by Taiwan's air force is Okinawa, Japan," the official said.