Taiwan last week joined a US-led initiative in an advisory capacity, which discussed bolstering the defense industrial resilience of the US and its partners for the Indo-Pacific region, a US Pentagon official said.
The Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience (PIPIR) on Wednesday convened its second annual plenary meeting, the US Department of Defense said.
The partnership has 16 members: the US, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand and the UK, it said.
Photo: Bloomberg
The conference reaffirmed the partnership’s commitment to accelerating defense industrial cooperation, the department said.
The meeting also addressed capacity shortfalls and resilience challenges by integrating the defense industries of member states, opening new production and logistics centers, and creating measures to mitigate supply chain risks, the department said.
Taiwan presented in an advisory capacity at the meeting, a department official told the Central News Agency. It did not mention the Taiwanese officials’ identities or details about their participation.
In response to media queries for comment,Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), director of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s Defense Strategy and Resources Division, said yesterday the nation’s participation as an adviser is an upgrade from its previous observer status.
Taiwan has a chance to become a formal member of the partnership, which would allow the nation to make meaningful contributions to the global cooperation in defense industry supply chains, he said.
The conference featured a tabletop exercise aimed at identifying supply chain vulnerabilities and emphasized the need to accelerate the revival of arms production, Su said.
The group’s call for an Indo-Pacific defense industrial base implies that Taiwan might receive US support in the production of small drones and 30mm chaingun ammunition, he said.
Earlier this year, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene confirmed that US-based Northrop Grumman Corp has established a medium-caliber ammunition test range in Taiwan, Su said.
The facility is expected to enable the joint production of 30mm shells in Taiwan, he added.
Taiwan’s presence at the partnership’s meeting signaled a deepening in Taiwan-US supply chain cooperation, he said.
The US also revealed plans for Japan and South Korea to open aircraft engine maintenance and repair centers for F-16 jets and Chinook helicopters respectively, Su said.
These schemes suggest that the US anticipates that its armament programs would increase the demand on maintenance capabilities, requiring its allies and partners to take on a greater share of the burden in servicing their weapon systems, he said.
Additional reporting by Huang Ching-hsuang
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