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DEFENSE MINISTER RENEWS CALLS FOR SUPPORT FOR ARMS PROCUREMENT

Central News Agency

2005-07-08 12:43:54

    Taipei, July 8 (CNA) Minister of National Defense Lee Jye renewed his call late Thursday for public support for the government's arms procurement plan in order to maintain the military balance across the Taiwan Strait.

    The Taiwan public's consensus and support is crucial to enabling Taiwan to purchase the important U.S. weapon systems at a time when Taiwan is reshaping its military into a "lean and mean" defensive force and while China has continued with its military build-up and modernization, Lee said.

    Lee assured the country that the Ministry of National Defense will continue "with resolution and professionalism" to proceed with the procurement plan -- which involves eight diesel-electric submarines, six Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile batteries and a squadron of 12 P-3C anti-submarine aircraft.

    He stressed that the procurement plan is not only based on considerations of communist China's military threat and combat preparedness directed at Taiwan, but also on considerations that the procurement is key to the long-term reshaping and reforming of Taiwan's armed forces.

    The defense minister made the call during a cocktail party held at the ministry marking the 68th anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident -- a Japanese attack near the bridge southwest of Beijing in 1937 that led to the start of the eight-year China-Japan war.

    Drinking a toast with a number of retired military brass-hats on the occasion, Lee urged the senior generals to lend their support to the arms procurement plan.

    Referring the 1937-1945 anti-Japanese war as an important and inspiring lesson demonstrating that the weak can defeat the strong as long as the military and the people remain united, Lee said the country's "esprit de corps" can help the arms procurement plan materialize.

    In late June, Lee had called for the country, particularly the legislature, to support the arms procurement plan after the United States expressed concerns about whether Taiwan was really determined to protect itself militarily.

    The U.S. concerns were conveyed via the American Institute in Taiwan over the fate of the arms procurement budget bill for the NT$480 billion (US$15.33 billion) arms procurement package that has been blocked repeatedly by the opposition-controlled legislature.

(By Deborah Kuo)

ENDITEM/Li