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Taiwan expects U.S. to approve chopper deal before year-end

Central News Agency

2009/10/22 20:30:45

By Sofia Wu

Taipei, Oct. 22 (CNA) The United States is expected to approve a Taiwanese Black Hawk helicopter procurement bid before either U.S. Thanksgiving Day in late November or Christmas, Defense Minister Kao Hua-chu predicted Thursday.

"The U.S. government is not likely to sanction any arms sales to Taiwan before President Barack Obama's visit to China in November, but after that, there may be a change in the U.S. attitude... and there may be good news on our Black Hawk deal, " Kao said during a Legislative Yuan Foreign and Defense Affairs Committee session.

Noting that the U.S. Congress is screening Taiwan's chopper procurement plan, Kao described the Ministry of National Defense (MND) as "cautiously optimistic" about the prospects of success for the deal.

On China's just-concluded National Day military parade, Kao said, the numbers and types of weaponry systems on display were far greater than documented in Beijing's annual defense white paper.

Against this backdrop, he went on, Taiwan cannot afford to relax in its combat preparedness, even though the possibility of an outbreak of war across the Taiwan Strait "has been less in the past two years than it has been in the five years prior to that." As part of the government's efforts to beef up its disaster response capacity in the wake of Typhoon Morakot devastation, the MND is expected to assign 15 of the 60 Black Hawk helicopters it plans to purchase to the National Airborne Service Corps under the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) , and Kao said maintenance of these aircraft will be the responsibility of the MOI.

On concern raised by opposition Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Hung-liang that President Ma Ying-jeou might turn the country's armed forces into a "disaster relief army, " Kao said such worry is unwarranted.

"The primary portion of the military's 2010 budget of NT$300.1 billion will still go to defense and only NT$1.1 billion will be set aside for disaster response, " Kao said, adding that while Ma has instructed the military to make disaster response one of its core missions, it is not its only mission.

Meanwhile, Kao issued a clarification of recent speculation that Taiwan has closed its submarine procurement office in the United States.

"The speculation is groundless and the office remains in place, " he said.

Chiang Lung-an, the navy's chief of staff, said the office has two staff members responsible for the military's plan to purchase diesel-electric submarines, with one handling submarine-related affairs and the other dealing with administrative matters.

"The MND also has a special panel tasked with maintaining contact with the submarine procurement office in the United States, " Chiang added.

Taiwan has long been seeking to buy diesel-electric submarines, but the plan has never borne fruit because of complex technical and political issues.