Thu, Feb 12, 2026 page2

• New US arms strategy favors Taiwan, but ambiguity remains: experts

  • Staff writer, with CNA
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  The US’ new "America First Arms Transfer Strategy" could benefit Taiwan, though much would depend on how it is implemented and whether Taipei approves sufficient funding, US defense experts said yesterday.

  The new foreign military sales (FMS) guidance could be helpful for Taiwan "if done properly,” said Mark Montgomery, a retired rear admiral in the US Navy and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

  Montgomery was referring to US President Donald Trump's signing of an executive order titled "Establishing an America First Arms Transfer Strategy."

  

  Retired US Navy rear admiral Mark Montgomery speaks in an interview with the Central News Agency in Washington on July 18 last year.

  Photo: CNA

  The order, signed last week, marked a policy shift toward prioritizing US arms sales and transfers to partners with higher defense spending and greater strategic importance, replacing the long-standing first-come, first-served delivery approach.

  However, the order "is only a small fraction of the reform that is needed within the FMS process to reduce the backlogs of deliveries many countries, like Taiwan, are experiencing," Montgomery said in an e-mailed comment.

  The order's "vague" wording made it hard to assess how the new policy would affect Taiwan, said John Dotson, director of the Global Taiwan Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

  He cited two key sections of the order, the first of which states that foreign arms sales would be used to "support domestic reindustrialization, expand production capacity, and improve the resilience of the United States defense industrial base."

  The language in that section could be interpreted to mean that arms sales would prioritize larger-ticket items, such as aircraft, missiles or heavy artillery such as High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, Dotson said.

  The wording could also be interpreted as support for possible collaborative programs between the US and Taiwan, such as the development of uncrewed aerial vehicles, he said.

  "My educated guess is that supporting 'domestic reindustrialization' probably leans more" toward the former interpretation, Dotson said, adding that such a focus on "big-ticket" items could prioritize some Middle Eastern customers.

  The second key part of the order states that the US would prioritize arms sales and transfers to partners "that have invested in their own self-defense and capabilities, have a critical role or geography in United States plans and operations, or contribute to our economic security," Dotson said.

  The language referring to "critical geography" and the connection to US economic interests "could be taken as a veiled invocation of support for Taiwan," he said.

  However, the reference to "partners that have invested in their own defense" would add pressure on Taiwan’s opposition parties to approve the proposed special defense budget and other defense improvement programs, Dotson said.

  He was referring to a NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.81 billion) eight-year special defense budget that was proposed by the government late last year, but remains stalled in the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan.

  The legislature has also yet to approve the government's general budget proposal for this year, which would boost defense funding — including veterans' and coast guard expenses — by NT$93.8 billion, or 20.1 percent, to NT$949.5 billion.

  That figure is equivalent to 3.32 percent of Taiwan's GDP, government data showed, and would bring Taiwan closer to its goal of raising its defense spending to 5 percent of its GDP by 2030.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Iran’s supreme leader Khamenei killed

  • 2

    Iran prepare for Women’s Asian Cup in Australia as bombs drop on homeland

  • 3

    Marco Bezzecchi wins MotoGP opener

  • 4

    For Bangladesh, just playing is a win

  • 5

    Liverpool rocked by last-gasp defeat at Wolves