The Cabinet has proposed special defense budgets totaling NT$117.6 billion (US$3.85 billion) to boost military spending beyond the limits of the general budget, amid expectations that US President Donald Trump’s administration would approve additional arms sales to Taiwan next year, experts said on Thursday.
The special budget would bring spending on defense to NT$949.5 billion, equivalent to 3.32 percent of GDP.
The NT$117.6 billion figure comprises three special budgets, including NT$7.6 billion proposed by the Coast Guard Administration. The remainder is to be earmarked under the Homeland Security Resilience Special Budget and the Foreign Military Sales Special Budget, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics official Hsu Yung-yi (許永議) said, without providing further details, as the budgets remain under Cabinet review.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-run Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the Ministry of National Defense general budget increase is limited, making the use of special budgets a natural way to meet arms procurement needs.
The special budgets could fund the production of the seven planned indigenous defense submarines, the procurement of drones from the US and local manufacturers, as well as the development of domestically made uncrewed surface vehicles, Su said.
The special budgets are likely to also include funds to purchase E-2D airborne early warning aircraft and M109A7 self-propelled howitzers from the US, he added.
Su expressed hope that the special defense budgets would prioritize domestically produced weapons — in line with the military’s Sea-Air Combat Power Improvement Plan — to stimulate the defense industry and broader economic growth.
National Taiwan University Department of Political Science associate professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民) said the sale of significant platforms such as M1A2T main battle tanks and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, which Taiwan recently received, were approved during Trump’s first term.
Although the Trump administration has not announced new military sales to Taiwan, the government is confident that additional arms packages would be forthcoming and is preparing for them through special defense budgets, Chen said.
With the 2027 “Davidson window” approaching, there is a high probability that the US would sell advanced weapons to Taiwan next year, he said.
The term “Davidson window” comes from then-US Indo-Pacific Command commander Philip Davidson’s 2021 testimony to the US Congress, in which he said that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027
Davidson’s assessment has since been reiterated by several US officials, including US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that it has negotiated a royalties of NT$12.2 billion (US$380 million) with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp, with the earliest possible signing date set for Wednesday next week. The city has been preparing for Nvidia to build its Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park since last year, and the project has now entered its final stage before the contract is signed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city government has completed the royalty price negotiations and would now push through the remaining procedures to sign the contract before
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was agreed by both sides, after Lithuania’s prime minister described a 2021 decision to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy in Vilnius as a “mistake.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, who entered office in September last year, told the Baltic News Service on Tuesday that Lithuania had begun taking “small first steps” aimed at restoring ties with Beijing. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners that share the values of freedom and democracy. Since the establishment of the
Taipei Zoo welcomes the Lunar New Year this year through its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once fully extinct outside of captivity. The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse would draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across the steppes of western Mongolia. “Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse: ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has been
Taiwan must first strengthen its own national defense to deter a potential invasion by China as cross-strait tensions continue to rise, multiple European lawmakers said on Friday. In a media interview in Taipei marking the conclusion of an eight-member European parliamentary delegation’s six-day visit to Taiwan, the lawmakers urged Taipei to remain vigilant and increase defense spending. “All those who claim they want to protect you actually want to conquer you,” Ukrainian lawmaker Serhii Soboliev said when asked what lessons Taiwan could draw from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Soboliev described the Kremlin as a “new fascist Nazi regime” that justified
RSS