International Herald Tribune
April 27, 2001
Europeans Reject Role In Taiwan Arms Deal
U.S. Offer of Submarines Is Seen as 'Snub'
By Joseph Fitchett
PARIS -- The Bush administration's failure to consult in advance with Germany or the Netherlands on its offer to sell Taiwan submarines using those countries' technology has irritated the two European governments and will make it difficult to complete the sale, European and U.S. officials and experts said Thursday.
Pentagon officials apparently surprised the German and Dutch governments by announcing in Washington Wednesday that technology or blueprints for diesel-powered, hunter-killer submarines of the sort offered to Taiwan in the U.S. arms package could be obtained in the two European countries. Because U.S. shipyards have shifted entirely to producing nuclear-powered submarines, they have not designed or built a diesel submarine in four decades.
The immediate effect of the unexpected Bush move was to push both Germany and the Netherlands to publicly rule out any role in the deal. They offered specific assurances to Beijing that they were sticking to their pledges against exporting advanced weapons directly or indirectly to Taiwan.
Apparently reflecting official irritation in both capitals, media in the two countries described the Taiwan episode as the latest example of what Europeans see as a tendency by the Bush administration to take unilateral actions without adequate discussions with U.S. allies, even when they are directly involved. The apparent U.S. assumption that allies would back Washington on Taiwan, ignoring their own export restrictions if necessary, amounts to "an insensitive snub" to Berlin, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper, commented.
In Washington, "confusion is the best description" of official thinking about how to come up with the attack submarines that the United States wants to sell Taiwan, according to John Pike, head of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-area company that specializes in analyzing military affairs.
In the sketchy initial U.S. presentation of the Taiwan deal, it was suggested that the submarines would be built and sold by the Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. This facility is owned by Northrop Grumman, the defense contractor, and located in the home state of Senator Trent Lott, the influential Republican leader of the Senate majority.
Northrop Grumman apparently wants to get back into the diesel submarine business by obtaining modern technology from abroad, perhaps by licensing European models or perhaps by getting the submarines shipped in parts to the United States for final assembly in Pascagoula.
With the public statements by Germany and the Netherlands, however, it was unclear how the American company would get the technology. France and Sweden, the other two European countries that build such vessels, would be even less likely to help, French diplomats said.
"Licensing or any other form of assistance would be tantamount to selling the actual submarines and contradicts our pledges to Beijing," a Dutch diplomat said.
The Netherlands spent several years undoing diplomatic and commercial damage to its ties with China after selling Taiwan two submarines in the 1980s. A second submarine sale to Taiwan, proposed in the early 1990s, was vetoed by the Dutch government.
The eight attack submarines are the crown jewels in the Bush administration's proposed arms package for Taiwan. These hunter-killer submarines could intercept Chinese submarines or other warships sent by Beijing to try to blockade the island, which Beijing views as a renegade Chinese province.
