Taiwan's plan to buy fighters still not accepted by U.S.
ROC Central News Agency
Taipei, Sept. 15 (CNA) The government's request to purchase F16C/D jet fighters from the United States has still not been accepted by Washington, a ranking official in the Presidential Office said Monday after receiving an update on Washington's position.
The F16 C/D fighters are among a package of weapons systems Taiwan would like to purchase from the United States, but Taipei has yet to have its request to buy the fighters accepted by Washington, said the official, who asked not be named.
"All other seven types of arms procurements are in the pipeline, but the F16 C/D requests have yet to be sent," he said.
The Ministry of National Defense has made considerable efforts to send its price & availability requests to Washington, but they have been repeatedly rebuffed, he said.
The official said the U.S. has yet to clearly explain its reasons for denying the request up to now, and he hoped the difficulties in procuring the fighters would not affect the approval process for the other weapons systems.
The seven systems in the package pending in Washington are Apache helicopters, anti-tank missiles, Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile batteries, a feasibility study of diesel-powered submarines, P3C anti-submarine aircraft, sea-launched Harpoon missiles and Black Eagle helicopters.
The official said that Taiwan has completed the process of sending the required letters of offer and acceptance on the seven items, and it was now left for the United States to approve the purchase.
He expressed the hope that the U.S. executive branch would notify Congress of its approval of the arms procurement package before Congress goes into recess this fall. (By Lilian Wu) enditem/ls
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