The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed a motion authorizing the Cabinet to sign letters of acceptance (LOA) for four weapons systems approved for sale by the US that were set to expire this month.
The motion was passed by the legislature in line with the conclusion reached following cross-caucus talks a day earlier.
The four systems — M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, Javelin anti-armor missiles, TOW 2B missiles and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) — form the bulk of a US$11.1 billion arms package the US announced in December last year.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
They would be funded through a special defense budget being reviewed by the legislature.
The Cabinet and the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party have submitted their own versions of the spending plan due to disagreements over its scope.
Without a quick resolution in sight, they decided to focus on the LOAs first because of approaching deadlines.
The LOA for the HIMARS system was set to expire on March 26, and those for the other three weapons systems were to expire tomorrow.
Failure to sign the letters might have forced the arms procurement process to begin again.
Ministry of National Defense official Huang Wen-chi (黃文啟) on Thursday said that the US had not formally agreed to the ministry’s request to push back tomorrow’s deadline, but had said that the ammunition for the HIMARS would be removed from the package if Taiwan missed the signing deadline.
The motion also directed the Executive Yuan to brief the legislature on the estimated delivery dates of the US weapons systems during and after the review of the special budget, as Washington has a US$8.28 billion backlog in arms yet to be delivered to Taiwan.
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