The US Department of State has approved two potential sales to Taiwan of F-16 parts and related equipment worth a total of US$300 million, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday.
The deals would represent the 14th arms sale to Taiwan since US President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
In two press releases, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the packages would include standard (US$220 million) and non-standard (US$80 million) spare and repair parts, components, consumables and accessories for F-16 aircraft, as well as other technical and logistics support services.
Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba, AFP
The proposed sales would “improve [Taiwan’s] ability to meet current and future threats by maintaining the operational readiness of [Taiwan’s] fleet of F-16 aircraft,” the agency said.
They would also help improve the security of the nation and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance and economic progress in the region, it said.
The agency said it had notified the US Congress of the potential sales.
The approval does not indicate that a contract for the equipment has been signed.
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that the sales would help maintain Taiwan’s combat capabilities as the Chinese Communist Party continues to suppress Taiwan’s air and maritime training space and response time through “gray zone” tactics, restricting the nation’s right to self defense.
The ministry urged China to cease “all irrational actions” against Taiwan, saying that stability in the Strait requires the joint efforts of both sides.
Asked about Biden’s repeated remarks about defending Taiwan and his administration’s approval of arms sales, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said the remarks show the importance of Taiwan.
The nation needs to enhance its self-defense capabilities, he said.
“Judging from Biden’s past remarks, we can see the importance of Taiwan, as well as that the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait are indispensable to maintaining global peace and prosperity,” Koo said.
“Taiwan must first bolster its self-defense capabilities and become a force for deterrence by joining the US Indo-Pacific strategy. This is a crucial task of the defense ministry,” he addded.
Meanwhile, the Taiwan-US Defense Industry Symposium opened in Taipei yesterday.
There has been speculation that US defense contractors participating in the forum are to meet with defense ministry officials to talk about details of the arms sales, apart from visiting the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (漢翔航空工業).
“The forum is an event for exchange among businesses in the private sector and it has nothing to do with arms sales,” Koo said.
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS