Defense team goes to US to talk about submarines

A defense team is visiting Washington this week to discuss Taiwan's plans to purchase eight diesel submarines and four destroyers from the US, Chinese-language newspapers said yesterday.

The head of the Defense Ministry's planning department, Wang Li-shen (王立申), is leading the visit and was expected to meet with members of the US Department of Defense yesterday and today, according to the mass-circulation Liberty Times, which quoted unidentified US sources.

Another report in a Chinese-language newspaper said that Wang's delegation would meet with US officials next week.

The Taiwanese military would neither confirm nor deny the report. To avoid prompting protests from rival China, Taiwan traditionally does not publicly discuss its US weapons purchases.

The top items on the agenda will be to discuss a US offer to sell Taiwan eight diesel submarines and four Kidd-class destroyers, the Liberty Times said.

The sale was approved last year by US President George W. Bush in one of the most robust packages the US has offered Taiwan in years.

But, since then the possibility of purchasing the weapons systems have met with strong opposition in the legislature. Lawmakers argue that the decommissioned Kidd-class destroyers, built in 1979, are too big and too expensive to maintain.

Lawmakers have also argued that six of the eight submarines the US has offered to sell Taiwan should be built on the island.

US officials are growing increasingly concerned with the island's slow response to the sensitive sale, the Liberty Times said.