US senators would urge legislators across party lines to support the government’s NT$1.25 billion (US$39.21 billion) special defense budget during a visit beginning today, the Financial Times said in a report yesterday.
The delegation, headed by Democratic US Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Republican US Senator John Curtis, both members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would meet President William Lai (賴清德) and members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the newspaper said.
The Lai administration’s special military spending bill is deadlocked at the legislature, with the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) proposing alternative bills with lower spending.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
The delegation’s visit to Taiwan is weeks ahead of US President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), which has sparked concerns that the US leader could make concessions on his support for Taiwan.
Shaheen on Friday said “that is one of the reasons we think it is very important for us in Congress to be there, to both affirm the support and talk about why it’s important ... to see Taiwan taking these strong actions in defense of themselves,” the newspaper reported.
She confirmed that the delegation would meet KMT lawmakers to emphasize the importance of passing the military spending bill to show that “Taiwan is equally committed to an independent future as members of Congress.”
US lawmakers — including some of Taiwan’s strongest supporters — have in the past few months voiced frustration over Taipei’s failure to pass a bill to provide for its own defense, with some saying Trump could become less willing to help Taiwan as a result, the Financial Times said.
“I’m concerned about his [Trump’s] commitment to reinforcing the United States’ support for Taiwan and not undermining their sovereignty,” Shaheen was quoted as saying.
Curtis said that the delegation intends to address the stalling of the special defense budget at the Legislative Yuan.
“Taiwan’s consideration of ... President Lai’s budget is so critical,” Curtis was quoted as saying. “Literally, if we did nothing else other than to emphasize over there how important that is, that would be a big reason for going.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly said that it has not changed its stance on Taiwan amid speculation in Washington that the US could concede to Beijing’s demand to say that it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, the Financial Times reported.
However, the Trump administration has not notified the US Congress on the US$11.1 billion arms sale package to Taiwan or another package worth at least US$13 billion it is reportedly working on, seemingly delaying it to after the US president’s visit to China, it said.
Curtis was quoted as saying that it was important for Taiwan and China to not overreact to the US visits across Asia, adding that Washington needs to maintain good ties with Beijing.
“I like to describe our relationship with China like a marriage. It needs marriage counselling, but not a divorce,” the Financial Times quoted him as saying.
“If there is marriage counselling going on with the presidents of our two countries, that is healthy, because there is no world where this world is safe if we do not have a good relationship with China,” he said.
The delegation leaders confirmed that they would also meet South Korean President Lee Jae-myung in Seoul and US Indo-Pacific Command Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo in Hawaii.
The delegation would ask Paparo to assess the impact of the US-Iran conflict on US defensive posture in the Indo-Pacific region and what type of support China is giving Iran, Shaheen told the Financial Times.
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