Pledges by President William Lai (賴清德) to increase military spending are an important signal of Taiwan’s commitment to self-defense, former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger said at a Halifax International Security Forum event in Taipei (HFX Taipei) yesterday.
Pottinger, who served from 2019 to 2021 during US President Donald Trump’s first term, was referring to Lai’s pledges to boost defense spending to more than 3 percent of GDP.
Lai made the pledges, along with commitments to double down on defense reforms and enhance civil protections, shortly after Trump, speaking with reporters in Washington, accused Taiwan of taking “our chip business away” while threatening tariffs on foreign semiconductors entering the US.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
“It’s really important as a signal to the United States and other countries about Taiwan’s commitment to its defense,” said Pottinger, who chairs the China Program at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Lai’s plan for a special budget, if successful, would bring Taiwan’s defense expenditure on par with the US’ in terms of share of GDP, Pottinger told HFX Taipei.
Three percent “seems like a good bargain to me,” considering Ukraine’s investment in its fight against Russian troops and the US’ at the peak of the Cold War in the 1980s, he said.
Former US ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert, former Ukrainian parliamentarian Hanna Hopko and Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) also attended HFX Taipei.
Taiwan’s annual defense spending has hovered between 2 and 2.5 percent of GDP since former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office in 2016, but it has yet to surpass 3 percent.
It remains to be seen whether Lai’s pledges — which would likely result in Taiwan purchasing more defense articles from the US — will materialize because his party, the DPP, does not have a majority in the legislature and faces a strong backlash from the opposition.
For fiscal 2025, the Cabinet initially earmarked NT$647 billion (US$19.76 billion) for the Ministry of National Defense, or 2.45 percent of GDP.
However, the final appropriation is still uncertain after opposition lawmakers imposed several cuts and freezes during the budget review, some of which might overlap, leaving the executive branch to verify the final figures.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS