• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Taiwan awaits U.S. decision on arms procurement requests

ROC Central News Agency

By Han Nai-kuo

Taipei, Sept. 18 (CNA) Taiwan long ago submitted its military procurement plans to the United States and it is now up to the Bush administration to decide what it will do about Taiwan's requests, President Ma Ying-jeou said Thursday.

Answering questions from reporters, Ma said there are seven items on Taiwan's procurement list: anti-tank missiles, Apache helicopters, Patriot PAC-3 missile batteries, diesel-electric submarines, upgrading for early-warning aircraft, sea-launched Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and Black Eagle helicopters.

"We have made our procurement plans very clear and it now depends entirely on the attitude of the U.S. government -- in other words, when the U.S. administration decides to report our requests to the U.S. Congress and how that report is formulated," Ma said.

Whether in Taipei or lobbying in Washington, D.C., the government has not slackened in its efforts to push through the arms procurement plans, Ma said, adding that although the plans were originally presented by the former Democratic Progressive Party government, the proposed purchases had the full support of the then-opposition Kuomintang in the legislature.

Ma noted that according to U.S. law, if the U.S. government does decide to refer the arms procurement request to Congress, it must do so before the end of this month.