KMT Chairman-elect Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma, who recently received a letter from the Taiwan Caucus -- a pro-Taiwan group in the US House of Representatives -- urging him to work for early passage of the arms procurement package, said that the KMT could agree to some items in the package being financed with a special budget.
Ma said he gives his "conditional support" for the arms procurement package, adding that a due amount of spending on national defense is necessary and that his party should review the issue in a rational way.
However, Sun Ta-chien (
PFP Legislator Lin Yu-fang (
Lin said he will soon call on KMT Chairman-elect Ma to discuss the arms procurement issues with him.
In related news, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Saturday that it has yet to decide on which items of an arms procurement package to place in its regular annual budget, as it has yet to receive directives from the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan.
MND officials were responding to media reports that in order to facilitate the passage of the arms procurement package by the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan, the MND will not insist on all three items of the NT$480 billion (US$15.24 billion) package being financed by a special budget.
The three items in the arms procurement from the US to be financed over a 15-year period are six PAC-III Patriot anti-missile batteries, eight diesel-electric submarines, and a squadron of 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft.
According to the media reports, the MND hopes to have the submarines and aircraft financed by a special budget, with the Patriot batteries to be included in the regular annual budget.
One day after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said that certain items of the arms procurement package could be financed with funds to be appropriated for the military's regular annual budget, a spokesman of the Executive Yuan said Friday that the Cabinet will make necessary adjustments in its annual budget for next year but that the MND will study which items, the amount, and the financing period of the package to be listed in the regular annual budget.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS