The US Congress on Tuesday unveiled the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2023, which authorizes up to US$12 billion in grants and loans to Taiwan over the next five years to buy US weapons.
The act authorizes up to US$2 billion in annual grants from next year to 2027, as well as an additional US$2 billion in loans for Taiwan to bolster its military capabilities with weapons from the US.
It also authorizes a regional contingency stockpile for Taiwan of up to US$100 million in munitions a year for use in the event of a conflict.
Photo: Reuters
The act also recommends that Washington invite Taiwan to attend the next Rim of the Pacific Exercise in 2024, which the US organizes.
This version of the act, which is passed annually to set policy for the Pentagon, was a result of months of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate and House of Representatives.
It was based on two bills: the House version of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2023, which passed the House on July 14, and the Senate version of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2023, which was approved by the Senate Committee on Armed Services on June 16.
This version of the act authorizes a budget of US$817 billion for the US Department of Defense and US$29 billion for national security programs within the US Department of Energy, the Senate and House Committee on Armed Services said in a news release.
It also authorizes critical investments in military technology, provides a 4.6 percent pay raise for US service members, and ensures that they have the support, equipment and training they need, the news release said.
Reuters reported that he act is expected to pass the Senate and House this month, before being sent to the White House for US President Joe Biden to sign into law.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS