Taiwan and the US have remained tight-lipped about a reported plan to jointly produce weapons that would increase the production of US-designed arms and accelerate their transfer to Taipei.
The non-profit US-Taiwan Business Council on Wednesday told Reuters that the idea was in the early planning stages.
“It’s right at the beginning of the process,” said Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the organization, which has a membership that reportedly includes many US defense contractors.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
While it is yet to be determined which weapons would be considered part of the effort, the initiative would likely focus on providing Taiwan with more munitions and long-established missile technology, Hammond-Chambers was cited as saying.
The first report of the plan was published earlier on Wednesday by Nikkei Asia, which cited multiple unnamed sources as saying that US President Joe Biden’s administration was considering the joint production of weapons with Taiwan in a bid to more effectively deter China.
Initial discussions on the matter focused on whether to allow US defense companies to provide weapons technology to manufacturers in Taiwan, or to produce the arms in the US using Taiwan-made parts, Nikkei Asia said.
Asked about the reports on Wednesday, US Department of State principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said that he had no comment on that specifically.
“What I would say broadly is that the US is looking at all options on the table to ensure that the rapid transfer of defense capabilities to Taiwan can take place as swiftly as possible,” he said.
“Consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act, as you know, we have made available various services and defense articles for Taiwan’s security, and the swift provision of these technologies and these services, we believe, are essential to Taiwan’s security,” Patel said.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Ministry of National Defense yesterday declined to comment on the news reports.
MOFA spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that the US government, across party lines, maintains close cooperation with Taiwan to bolster Taiwan’s self-defense and asymmetrical warfare capabilities through arms sales.
“The two sides continue to have regular, intensive discussions on that matter, but we have no information to share, and we are not willing to comment on the reports,” she said.
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