Taipei Times: Mister Secretary, the Bush administration last April agreed to sell Taiwan up to eight diesel submarines, even though the US has not made any diesel subs in more than 40 years. A team from Washington will soon present the Taiwan military with options for the subs. Could you give us an idea of what Washington might have in mind for the vessels, and how it will get them designed and built?
Peter Brookes: As you know, President [George W.] Bush made a commitment to Taiwan to help procure diesel submarines. The commitment was made in earnest and we intend to deliver on it. Right now, we have a number of viable options from industry that have been proposed to us, and we are actually in the process of reviewing those proposals, and we'll be presenting those to Taiwan in the near future. But, we have not made any final decision.
TT: Has Taipei given any assurance that it will buy the subs, or can afford them? Any possibility of one or more of them being built in Taiwan? And, what's the current estimated price tag?
Brookes: It wouldn't be productive to discuss the specifics of those proposals until we have had a chance to evaluate them and then present them to Taiwan. Clearly we want Taiwan to have diesel-electric submarines, and that is implicit in the president's decision to help Taiwan procure them.
TT: Could you update us on the progress of the sale of the four Kidd-class destroyers also agreed to last April? Does the administration now see these destroyers as an alternative to Taiwan's request for AEGIS-equipped Arleigh-Burke class destroyers, or as an interim measure?
Brookes: We have approved -- in principle -- the possible sale of these to Taiwan. We're actually waiting for a formal request from Taiwan on their purchase. We feel these ships would provide Taiwan with important naval capability, such as anti-submarine warfare capability. We continually review and assess Taiwan's defense needs as required under the Taiwan Relations Act, a process the Bush administration has made more systematic and rationalized last April, but I don't want to speculate on what future assessments might include.
TT: Last April, President Bush dropped the annual arms-sales talks with Taiwan in favor of dealing with Taiwan arms sales as with any other country, on a case-by-case basis. Since then, no major sales agreements have been reached or announced. Does this mean that efforts in the future will be devoted to implementing the arms sales agreements made so far? Or is there still the possibility that Washington might agree soon to sell weapons systems it has so far rejected, such as the AEGIS, the Pac-3 missile defense system, the high-speed, anti-radiation missiles that can knock out enemy radar, Apache helicopters and M1 tanks? Any other new requests pending?
Brookes: I think it's very important to make sure that we make available to Taiwan the right defense articles, defense services that provide for Taiwan's self-defense. It's even more important, if possible, that these be used jointly among the services to the full extent of their capability. We take very seriously our responsibility under the Taiwan Relations Act to make available to Taiwan defense articles and services that can enable it to maintain a sufficient self defense capability, and the TRA outlines our approach to arms sales.
RSS