The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it will sign a defense accord with Macedonia's defense minister Liuben Paunoski today.
Paunoski arrived in Taiwan yesterday for a one-week visit.
The bilateral agreement will be signed between Minister of National Defense Wu Shih-wen (吳世文) and his Macedonian counterpart at 6pm at the office of the defense ministry in Taipei, the ministry said.
It is to be the first official defense accord that Taiwan has signed with any European country.
The defense ministry declined to reveal the content of the would-be defense accord, but some ministry officials said privately that it will be mainly about possible military cooperation and exchanges between the two countries.
A senior defense official, who declined to be identified, said there is not much chance of Taiwan undertaking an exchange of military hardware with Macedonia considering the great disparity between the two sides in their respective military strengths and diplomatic situations.
"Software exchange is probably the only area the two countries can work on. It can include exchanges of visits by defense officials of the two sides, exchanges of military cadets, and assisted training of troops," the official said.
Su Chin-chiang (蘇進強), a military analyst at Nanhua University, viewed the defense agreement between Taiwan and Macedonia as more symbolic than substantial.
"It will not give much of a boost to Taiwan's security in the Taiwan Strait. It is basically a manifestation of strengthening diplomatic ties between the two countries," Su said.
"It does not seem to me that Macedonia can offer Taiwan substantial military assistance. Taiwan can give much more help to them than they can give to us," he said.
A military official, who had been involved in Taiwan's military exchanges with other foreign countries, said unreservedly that Taiwan can get almost nothing from its military cooperation with Macedonia.
"But from a long-term perspective, if Taiwan can send military cadets to study in Macedonia or vice versa from now on, the diplomatic ties between the countries are likely to last longer," the official said.
"That's one of the reasons why our diplomatic relations with certain Central and Southern American countries have remained firm up to now. Military cadets in those countries are often from influential or rich families," he said.
"Establishing friendships with these prospective government leaders during their younger years is like a long-term investment," he added
Taiwan has also developed military cooperation relations with many other nations other than its diplomatic allies.
Two of the most well-known examples are the US and Singapore, whose military exchanges with Taiwan are maintained on the basis of mutual benefit.
Although the US recognizes Beijing, rather than Taiwan, diplomatically, it gives a lot of military assistance to Taiwan behind Beijing's back.
Army leaders, for instance, have been given access in recent years to the national training center of the US army, where they experienced in person how the US army trains its troops. Chinese military leaders were denied entry to the same facility.
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