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Taiwan to review submarine-purchasing policy

ROC Central News Agency

2008-05-21 18:45:35

    Taipei, May 21 (CNA) Taiwan's new Defense Minister Chen Chao-min said Wednesday that the Ministry of National Defense (MND) will review the country's submarine purchasing policy as such procurements are currently too "time and effort consuming." "Acquisition of some weaponry systems, such as submarines, is so time consuming that they might not be able to meet Taiwan's defensive needs by the time they are finally delivered," Chen said.

    Chen made the remarks in response to a question raised by ruling Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator John Chiang at the Legislative Yuan's Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee meeting on the new defense ministry's stance on Taiwan's plans to procure submarines, P-3C anti-submarine aircrafts and Patriot PAC-III missiles from the United States. "The defense ministry should review the submarine procurement plan since until now, after more than eight years, we haven't even been notified about wehich type of submarines that the United States will sell us," Chen said.

    Meanwhile, Chen said that the defense ministry has continued to contact Washington about the procurement of F-16 C/D fighter jets as the U.S. has yet to provide Taiwan with any quotation documents.

    Noting that the F-5E fighters Taiwan has are out of date and locally-developed IDF fighters' functions are limited, Chen said it is imperative for Taiwan to procure F-16 C/D fighter jets to help meet the island's defensive needs.

    KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung retorted that the defense ministry has not received the U.S. quotations on the F-16 C/D fighters probably because the defense ministry had not referred a letter of intent regarding the procurement.

    Discounting Ting's claim, Tung Hsiang-lung, director-general of the MND Department of Strategic Planning, said the defense ministry had submitted a letter of intent about Taiwan's plans to procure the F-16 C/D fighters, but it was rejected by the U.S.

    Also at the legislative session, the new defense minister, who assumed his post on Tuesday when the new KMT administration was inaugurated, said that he will strengthen spiritual education of the country's military personnel and will stress the importance of integrity and good character in the military during his tenure.

    Chen added that under his administration, no currying of favors or sucking-up will be allowed among military personnel.

    He cited an example of the type of behavior he would not allow: the change of a slogan on the spine of the military newspaper, the Youth Daily News, last year.

    The slogan on the spine was changed from the original "Fight for the Republic of China and the people of Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu" to simply say "Fight for Taiwan" -- a move explicitly aimed at responding to then President Chen Shui-bian's "Taiwan first and Taiwan-centric" political line.

    The new defense minister informed the legislators that "the slogan on the newspaper spine has been changed back."

(By Deborah Kuo)

ENDITEM/cs