US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday reiterated that US arms sales to Taiwan remain under review, saying that the US must balance such decisions against its own needs.
After four Republican senators raised concerns earlier in the day about stalled US arms sales and other military assistance to Taiwan, Rubio said that it was a multidimensional issue.
"People think ... we view arms sales through the limited vacuum of one particular place. A lot of this also involves balancing our industrial capacity and our military industrial base," Rubio told reporters in New York.
Photo: EPA
"This is not about Taiwan in specific, but when we sell something, that means we don't have it anymore," he said.
Washington's decision on arms sales to Taiwan was still under review, Rubio added.
"Anytime we do any sales — not to Taiwan, to anybody — it is always balanced against what are our own needs in different parts of the world and whether we can afford to sell something, because we may need it for ourselves. So that's going through that process," he said.
Rubio made the comments in response to reporters' questions after four Republican senators yesterday wrote to him and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth about Washington's obligation to assist with Taiwan's self-defense capabilities.
US senators Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis expressed concerns about whether the US Department of State intended to fulfill its obligation to provide US$300 million in foreign military financing for Taiwan and US$1 billion in funding for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative.
They also questioned Washington's decision to stall US$14 billion in foreign military sales to Taiwan.
"We are concerned by [US] President [Donald] Trump's description of Taiwan as 'a very good negotiating chip' in engagements with [Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] and the Chinese Communist Party," the four senators wrote.
"It is difficult to imagine how the United States might credibly project influence in the Indo-Pacific if the price of keeping up diplomatic appearances is denying our partners key deterrent capabilities," they added.
Asked about the issue, a senior administration official said that Trump had earlier this year said that he would decide "in a fairly short time regarding a new Taiwan arms package."
In December last year, Trump had approved "the largest ever arms package for Taiwan" of US$11.1 billion, the unnamed official said in an e-mail.
"In his first term, President Trump approved more arms sales to Taiwan than any other President in history," the official said. "In his second term, President Trump approved more in his first year than all four years under President Biden."
Xi arrived in Washington on Wednesday for a summit with Trump, which is expected to include discussions on arms sales to Taiwan.
Under US law, Washington is obligated to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.
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