U.S. FRUSTRATED BY DELAY IN TAIWAN'S ARMS PROCUREMENT DEAL: YU
ROC Central News Agency
2006-02-11 20:54:48
Taipei, Feb. 11 (CNA) Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Yu Shyi-kun said Saturday that the United States is indeed frustrated by Taiwan's long dealy in striking a bilateral arms deal, and that under the circumstances it was "only natural" that the U.S. to show impatience.
Taiwan media reported Saturday that Dennis Wilder, the U.S. National Security Council's acting senior director for Asia, had said if Taiwan did not show determination in its self-defense, the U.S. may lose interest in Taiwan after six months. "It is only natural that the U.S. would show impatience because they are trying to help us improve our defense, " Yu said during an interview with the Central News Agency.
Taiwan's opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan has blocked the budget bill for the DPP administration's plan to purchase eight diesel-electric submarines, six Patriot PAC III anti-missile batteries and a squadron of 12 P-3C submarine-hunting aircraft from the United States for nearly two years.
In the past, Yu said, when the United States did not want to sell arms to Taiwan, Taiwan took issue with the United States; now, the United States wants to sell Taiwan weapons but Taiwan does not want them, so it was natural for the United States to be impatient.
Yu accused opposition leaders of attempting to curry favors with Chinese leaders by blocking the arms deal, claiming that such an approach would do a great disservice to Taiwan's security and interests.
He then again urged the main opposition Kuomintang and its "pan-blue alliance" ally, the People First Party, to stop their boycott against the arms package in order to protect the people of Taiwan.
(By Debby Wu)
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