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U.S. will continue arm sales to Taiwan: U.S. official

ROC Central News Agency

2009/11/24 23:10:06
Taipei, Nov. 24 (CNA) There will be additional arm sales to Taiwan under the President Barack Obama administration, a top-level U.S. official said Tuesday in Taiwan.

"I think I'll use the phrase: All good things come to those who wait. Taking a long time doesn't mean things don't happen, " American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond F. Burghardt said in a press roundtable before wrapping up his seventh visit to Taiwan since he was appointed in 2006.

Citing a statement by Jeff Bader, senior director for Asian Affairs of the White House's National Security Council, before Obama visited China last week, Burghardt said that there will be arm sales to Taiwan during the present U.S. administration.

He made the four-day visit to the country to brief President Ma Ying-jeou on Obama's recent talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing, and the U.S. government's attitude toward a number of other issues, including the controversy surrounding Taiwan's relaxation of its regulations on U.S. beef imports.

Under the Taiwan Relations Act, which was passed in 1979 after Washington severed formal diplomatic ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing, the U.S. is committed to providing defensive arms sales to Taiwan.

The U.S. Defense Department notified Congress Oct. 3, 2008 of its approval of a US$6.46 billion arms package to Taiwan, including Apache attack helicopters, Patriot PAC-3 missile batteries, Javelin anti-tank missiles and sea-launched Harpoon missiles, as well as an upgrade of the E-2T aircraft to the Hawkeye 2000 configuration, along with related support equipment.

The approved package, however, does not include diesel-electric submarines, Black Hawk helicopters and F-16C/Ds that Taiwan is seeking.

"No-one has ever rejected the idea of selling F-16s to Taiwan, nor has there ever been a formal decision that yes, we will do so. So we will see, " said Burghardt, who added that the items that were not included in last year's arms package are still under evaluation and consideration by the U.S. government.

He noted, however, that besides arm sales, there is a wide range of other cooperation and interaction between the two militaries, such as designing training programs, giving advice on how Taiwan can protect itself and how Taiwan can organize its military.

Speaking of the growing number of missiles deployed by China aimed at Taiwan, Burghardt said there is no doubt that this construes a formal threat and that of course China should remove the missiles targeting Taiwan, but he also noted that it is only one piece of the picture, as there are other military means by which China can threaten Taiwan.

He stressed the importance of U.S. arm sales to Taiwan, saying that the fundamental requirement for any Taiwanese government to be able to negotiate with the People's Republic of China on trade, political and military issues is to be confident, to have political support from its own people and to feel that it has some self-defense capability.

Giving his personal view rather than the U.S. government's position, Burghardt said that "if arms sales to Taiwan come to a complete stop, you will also see cross-strait progress grind to a halt." (By Rachel Chan) ENDITEM/J