The White House’s 2025 fiscal budget proposal, released on Monday, includes a US$100 million request to assist Taiwan in enhancing deterrence capabilities, and maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
The funding would help the US Department of State and the US Agency for International Development bolster and expand Taiwan’s collaboration with international partners, the department said in a statement.
It described the US$100 million request as a “historic investment in Taiwan’s security” through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) mechanism “to strengthen deterrence and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
Photo: Reuters
The request comes after US President Joe Biden signed off on a US$80 million grant through the FMF in November last year to bolster Taiwan’s military capabilities.
US Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Richard Verma said it was “historic” because it would create a dedicated funding item for Taiwan.
“We break out Taiwan for the first time and have a specific line item for it. It reaffirms our commitment to security assistance for Taiwan, and to a free and open Indo-Pacific. I think it’s very clear. I think it stands on its own,” Verma said.
Regarding whether the funding would provide for a permanent training mission for US special forces in Taiwan, Verma said he did not think so, adding that it was just “traditional security assistance.”
“There’s also IMET [International Military Education and Training] assistance, and again, you have to read that together with the totality of our assistance in the Indo-Pacific Strategy and the new mandatory funding we’ve also added,” he said.
IMET is intended to establish rapport between the US military and those of other nations to build alliances.
In a separate budget overview released by the US Department of Defense, its proposal includes a US$500 million request to replenish US weapons stocks in Taiwan using the Presidential Drawdown Authority.
The “first-time funding request” would “address aggression in the region and ensure continued support to our allies,” while enabling the Pentagon to replace its inventory of “munitions and equipment and maintain readiness,” the defense department said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS