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ROC CHIEF OF GENERAL STAFF IN U.S. FOR MILITARY EXCHANGES

ROC Central News Agency

2007-07-21 16:14:06

    Washington, July 20 (CNA) Republic of China Chief of the General Staff Huo Shou-yeh is on a visit in the United States for bi-annual routine military exchanges, diplomatic sources said here Friday.

    Huo, who arrived in New York July 13, visited Washington, D.C. from July 14-17, toured the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Atlanta July 18 before heading July 19 to Hawaii to visit the U.S. Pacific Command. Hou is scheduled to wrap up his U.S. visit July 21, according to the sources.

    While in D.C., the sources said, Huo held talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace and Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs to exchange views on regional security issues.

    Expressing hope that Taiwan and the United States can strengthen their military exchanges during the talks, Huo urged the Bush administration to relax restrictions on visits to Taiwan by high-level military officers, according to the sources.

    He proposed that Washington allow Taiwan to take part in U.S.

    military exercises and assist with Taiwan's military transformation by helping the country beef up its joint warfare capabilities, the sources said.

    The U.S. officials expressed satisfaction that Taiwan's legislature has finally approved part of the budget for a long-stalled arms procurement package from the United States.

    Also during the talks, the sources said, Huo again expressed Taiwan's desire to procure F-16 C/D fighter jets from the United States and urged the Bush administration to issue a letter of offer and acceptance for the procurement to Taiwan as soon as possible.

    While approving the government's 2007 budget, Taiwan's Legislative Yuan froze one-third of the NT$16 billion outlay for the F-16 C/D purchase plan. The freeze will be lifted if the Ministry of National Defense manages to obtain U.S. consent to the deal by the end of October.

    Also included in the 2007 budget is NT$200 million to finance a feasibility study on the purchase of diesel-electric submarines from the United States, NT$6.1 billion to procure submarine-hunting P3-C aircraft, and NT$3.5 billion to upgrade the performance of Patriot PAC-2 anti-missile batteries.

(By Chiehyu Lin, Jorge Liu and Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/J