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U.S. will not approve F-16 deal before end of October: speaker

ROC Central News Agency

2007-09-26 23:17:05

    Taipei, Sept. 26 (CNA) The U.S. government is not likely to approve the sale of 66 advanced F-16 C/D jet fighters to Taiwan before the end of October, Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng said Wednesday.

    Wang made the remarks after meeting with Stephen M. Young, director of the Taipei Office of the American Institute in Taiwan, a quasi-official organization authorized by the U.S. government to handle exchanges with Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.

    Young paid a visit to Wang earlier in the day as he is scheduled to return to the United States in the next few days for consultations.

    During their talks, Wang said, Young had told him that the United States will definitely not provide price quotes for the F-16 C/D jet fighter deal before the end of October. "This means that the U.S. government will not approve the deal before the end of next month, " Wang said, adding that the NT$16 billion budget that the legislature already approved will have to be returned to the national coffers.

    While approving the fighter deal budget earlier this year, the opposition-controlled legislature imposed a condition that all of the money should be frozen if the U.S. government fails to approve the deal by the end of October.

    In a Sept. 6 teleconference with scholars at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank, President Chen Shui-bian said that information available to him shows that the Bush administration seems unlikely to approve the F-16 C/D deal until after Taiwan's new president takes office May 20, 2008. Chen himself is constitutionally barring for seeking a third term. "If the United States really wants to help beef up Taiwan's self-defense capabilities, why can it not immediately approve the F-16 deal rather than postpone approval until next year?" Chen asked.

    It is widely believed that the U.S. government is deliberately dragging its feet on the deal to express its displeasure with Chen's insistence on holding a referendum to ask the public whether Taiwan should apply for U.N. membership under the name Taiwan. The Bush administration has voiced opposition to the referendum plan, saying it views that kind of referendum as a move toward declaration of independence of Taiwan.

(By Sofia Wu)

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