• Military

• WMD Menu                           

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

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

AIT chief concludes visit to Taiwan

ROC Central News Agency

2009/11/25 17:29:03

Taipei, Nov. 25 (CNA) The top U.S. liaison officer with Taiwan returned to the United States on Wednesday, concluding his four-day visit to Taipei to brief Taiwanese officials and opposition leaders on U.S. President Barack Obama's recent visit to China.

American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond F. Burghardt arrived in Taiwan last Sunday, only days after a joint statement was issued by President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing.

The trip was aimed at clearing the air on Taiwan's place in U.S.-China-Taiwan relations and explaining the U.S. government's views on a number of other issues, including its economic agenda, U.S. arm sales to Taiwan and the controversy surrounding Taiwan's relaxation of its regulations on U.S. beef imports.

Burghardt's visit, which was regarded by Taiwan as an important gesture by the U.S. to balance its relations with both sides of the Taiwan Strait, was well-received by President Ma Ying-jeou, who said that U.S. pre- and post-event briefing to Taiwan on Obama's first state visit to China Nov. 15-18 was the smoothest and most comprehensive ever.

The trend of AIT chairmen visiting Taiwan to give briefings on meetings between U.S. and China heads of states began when Taiwan's former President Lee Teng-hui was in office.

Burghart, in his meetings with Ma, government officials, leaders of the opposition parties and scholars, reaffirmed that U.S. policy toward Taiwan will not change in any way and reiterated his country's commitment, under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, to providing Taiwan with defensive weapons.

Despite the fact that weapons like the diesel-electric submarines, Black Hawk helicopters and F-16C/Ds that Taiwan is seeking were not included in the US$6.46 billion arms package approved by the U.S. Congress last October, Burghardt said, there will be other arms sales to Taiwan during the current U.S. administration.

The U.S. is evaluating Taiwan's military needs and has not excluded the possibility of meeting Taiwan's other requests, including its proposal to buy F-16 C/D jet fighters, he said.

In response to Burghardt's remarks, Deputy Minister of Defense Chao Shih-chang said Wednesday at the Legislative Yuan that Taiwan has been demonstrating its determination to acquire weapons from the U.S. for self-defense and is using all channels to communicate with the U.S. authorities on several important arms sale packages.

"We believe that the U.S. can fully understand our determination and will carefully review our requests. We believe that it is just a matter of time," Chao said.

(By Lee Chia-fei, Yeh Shu-ping and Rachel Chan) Enditem /pc