Although the nation's opposition parties continue to block arms procurement from the US, members of the legislature's National Defense Committee have reached an agreement supporting the purchase of diesel submarines and P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft.
The agreement, proposed by People First Party (PFP) Legislator Nelson Ku (
"Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] Chairman Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] has talked a lot about the arms bill, but those were empty words and the weapons procurement proposal has made little progress," Ku told reporters on Saturday.
"I therefore came up with an agreement on the arms bill, which has won the support of most members of the committee in negotiations," Ku said.
However, the agreement has not won the approval of the KMT and PFP caucuses, Ku said.
"The agreement represents the opinions of lawmakers who are more knowledgeable about national defense," KMT Legislator Shuai Hua-min (
Shuai said the agreement did not represent the KMT caucus' attitude toward the arms procurement bill, but he would try to convince the party to support buying the P-3C aircraft, and also to agree to pass a supplementary budget for the defense ministry to cover the cost of selecting shipbuilding firms, as well as bidding and developing a design for the subs.
"While the procurement of PAC-3 missile batteries is dead, the submarines are not," Shuai said.
KMT caucus whip Tsai Chin-lung (
PFP caucus whip Lu Hsieh-chang (
The defense committee's agreement says that the main weapons purchases should be included in the general annual budget, not a special budget, and that the arms procurement process should be more transparent.
The diesel submarines are deterrent weapons, and as such are a priority for the nation's defense, but because a more accurate picture of the submarines has not been completed, the proposal has been delayed, the agreement said.
The agreement asks the Ministry of National Defense to come up a design for the submarines within one year of a supplementary budget being offered.
It said that the legislature should approve funds for the P-3C aircraft during the current legislative session.
The KMT and PFP have boycotted the arms bill -- which would fund the purchase of three PAC-3 missile batteries, 12 P-3C maritime patrol aircraft and eight diesel-powered submarines -- 53 times.
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