A military delegation is to leave for the US today for annual arms talks that are scheduled to start next week, according to defense sources.
The delegation is to be led by Deputy Chief of the General Staff General Hou Shou-yeh (霍守業). Its members will include Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Planning Vice Admiral Hung Cheng-lo (洪振洛) and the Ministry of National Defense's procurement department chief, Lieutenant General Chen Lan-chun (陳蘭鈞).
The annual US-Taiwan arms talks are scheduled to start on April 24 in Washington.
The arms talks have been given much publicity by both local and foreign media because of their political sensitivity in terms of the triangular relations between Taiwan, the US and China.
China's objection to the US selling advanced AEGIS-equipped destroyers to Taiwan is expected to have a major impact on the talks. According to overseas media reports, the Bush administration appears unlikely to sell the vessels to Taiwan this year.
But whether US President George W. Bush will veto the AEGIS sale will not be decided until the last moment.
KMT lawmaker Chou Cheng-chih (
"Before the annual arms talks between Taiwan and the US begin [next Tuesday], the US State Department and Department of Defense should have reached an agreement on what arms to sell to Taiwan," Chou said. "It is then President Bush's job to approve the list of weapons that the State Department and Department of Defense recommend for sales to Taiwan."
This year's arms talks will center around advanced weaponry such as the AEGIS-equipped destroyers, Kidd-class destroyers, submarines, and P-3C anti-submarine aircraft, Chou said.
"As expected, the US is very likely not to approve the sale of AEGIS-equipped ships to Taiwan this year," Chou said. "The US is likely to sell us the Kidd destroyers, submarines and P-3C aircraft. It is good to have all these items together. But the navy must consider carefully whether the country can afford to buy them all."
"I myself do not support the purchase of Kidd destroyers. The Kidd destroyers are all decommissioned vessels. If we buy them, we will spend more money on maintaining and repairing them than we will have spent buying them," he said.
Despite Chou's opposition, the navy has already made up its mind to buy the Kidds. The navy has worked out a new self-defense tactic making use of the Kidds' capabilities.
The new tactic relies on the long-range cruising capabilities of the Kidds, which are to patrol the seas off the eastern coast during peace-time and to enter the Taiwan Strait from the north and south in the event of war.
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