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ARMS DEAL STALL SHOWS TAIWAN NOT SERIOUS ABOUT ITS DEFENSE: ARMITAGE

ROC Central News Agency

2006-03-10 22:01:11

    Taipei, March 10 (CNA) Former Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Friday that the stall of the arms deal shows Taiwan is not as serious about its defense issue as it should be. "[The stall] seems to indicate that Taiwan is not as serious about it defense issue as it should be, and I know the President [Chen Shui-bian] has tried time and time again to get this out into the LY (Legislative Yuan plenary session), so we can have a vote. But it gets bottled up in the committee," Armitage said.

    He made the statement Friday during an interview with the Central News Agency.

    When asked about whether Washington is impatient and frustrated over the stall, he said, "I don't know if the right word is impatient or frustrated. But what it seems to say about Taiwan¡Xhow can Americans be more concerned about the defense of Taiwan than the [Taiwan] government and LY are?"

    He also said that as none of the items in the arms deal have moved, "it gives the impression that there is a lack of seriousness about providing for Taiwan's own defense.¡¨

    He said that right now the most effective thing Taiwan can do is to resolve the differences among the major parties over the arms deal, and to "show some seriousness of intent."

    He also refuted the claim that there are noises about the arms deal in Washington as he claimed that he has not heard of the U.S. navy's attempt to prevent Taiwan from acquiring submarines as claimed by the Defense News.

    The Defense News wrote in an editorial on February 13, "U.S. submarine officers privately fear that if an American shipyard did begin building conventionally powered boats, the production of more-capable nuclear boats would come to a halt once Congress saw a diesel sub¡¦s cheaper price tag. So the U.S. Navy is taking pains to ensure that any proposed deal that might fulfill Bush's eight-sub promise will be unaffordable or unacceptable to Taipei."

    He further refuted a report, dated Feb 20, 2006, in a Taipei-based English daily quoting a U.S. government source as saying, "the Bush administration has deceived Taiwan [on the deal] for a couple of reasons." He said he did not believe it was said by a U.S. government source. He said he never heard anything like it before.

    The paper report quoted the source as saying, "for NSC staff and [the] State [Department], it has been to keep Taiwan internally paralyzed, and use [President] Chen Shui-bian as a whipping boy. They can now deny anything and everything that Taiwan asks for because 'Taiwan doesn't take its defense seriously.'"

    Armitage left Taiwan Friday morning after a whirlwind three-day trip in Taiwan. During the period, he met with top government and opposition leaders including President Chen Shui-bian, Premier Su Tseng-chang, Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, Democratic Progressive Party chairman Yu Shyi-kun, Kuomintang chairman Ma Ying-jeou, and former President Lee Teng-hui.

(By Debby Wu)

ENDITEM