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Wang upbeat on US arms sales

“The passage of the procurement package is actually a ‘matter of course’ since it has been approved by the US president, its budget had been passed by the legislature and the relevant preparations are almost all in place.”

— Wang Jin-pyng, legislative speaker

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said in the US capital on Sunday that he was fully confident that the administration of US President George W. Bush would proceed with arms sales to Taiwan after the Beijing Olympics.

Wang said he believes the State Department would proceed shortly with the arms sales package that Washington approved in 2001, as under the Taiwan Relations Act the US has pledged to continue to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons to maintain stability and safeguard peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region.

“The passage of the procurement package is actually a ‘matter of course’ since it has been approved by the US president, its budget had been passed by the legislature and the relevant preparations are almost all in place,” Wang said at a news conference in Washington.

Wang said that the US government should trust the assessment made by defense professionals and give the green light to the arms deal soon because it is in line with the mutual interests of Taiwan and the US and is one of the key factors in balancing military strength across the Taiwan Strait.

Third, he said, the package — which includes anti-tank missiles, sea-launched Harpoon missiles, Apache helicopters, Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile batteries, diesel-powered submarines and P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft — would help Taiwan gain greater leverage in trilateral relations with China and the US and contribute significantly to efforts to maintain stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

Wang said he had visited Washington before for talks on the arms sales plan, but all he heard was pressure from the US for the legislature to pass the arms package bill as soon as possible.

This time around, he said he was in Washington to push the US government to complete the administrative process, the sooner the better, so that the case could be referred to Congress for approval.

He said that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had reiterated recently that Taiwan’s policy of acquiring US weapons systems remained unchanged and had stressed that “Taiwan’s purchase of US military weapons should proceed as projected and as quickly as possible.”

Wang emphasized that carrying through on the arms deal would be tremendously meaningful in terms of strengthening Taiwan’s national security, and its confidence in negotiations with China.

The implementation of the arms deal would also be meaningful in terms of demonstrating political trust between Taiwan and the US, Wang said, adding that more stable US-Taiwan relations are in the national interests of both.
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