• Military

• WMD Menu                           

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

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Taiwan hopes for continued sales of defensive weapons from U.S.

ROC Central News Agency

2015/11/26 22:27:35

Taipei, Nov. 26 (CNA) Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense repeated Thursday its hope that the United States will continue to sell Taiwan defensive weapons to help it bolster its self-defense capabilities.

U.S. sales of defensive weapons to Taiwan based on the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and the Six Assurances are conducive to peace in the Taiwan Strait and stability in the region, said ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Luo Shou-he (羅紹和).

The ministry hopes that Washington will continue to sell Taiwan such weapons to help it upgrade its self-defense capabilities, he said.

Luo's remarks came in response to a column written by Bloomberg View columnist Josh Rogin that said the U.S. government is close to announcing a US$1 billion arms deal with Taiwan.

'Washington will likely offer Taipei transfers of missile frigates, about a dozen AAV-7 amphibious assault vehicles, one replacement AH-64 Apache helicopter and munitions including Stinger, Javelin and TOW missiles,' Rogin wrote in his column on Nov. 25, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

The arms sale package, the first to Taiwan in more than four years, is likely to be announced formally in the second half of December, following the climate change conference in Paris, Rogin cited the officials as saying.

When asked to confirm the news, Luo, however, said that the ministry has not received related information from the U.S. Thus, he could not make any concrete comment.

Also in Taipei, Eleanor Wang (王珮玲), spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Thursday that the foreign ministry would not comment on U.S. arms sales before the U.S. administration has notified the U.S. Congress.

The foreign ministry welcomes the U.S. administration's continued efforts to provide Taiwan with adequate self-defensive weaponry and related services and to enhance bilateral military cooperation and exchanges, based on the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances, she said.

The TRA was enacted in 1979 to maintain commercial, cultural and other unofficial relations between the U.S. and Taiwan after Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. The act also requires the U.S. 'to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character.'

The six assurances given under the Reagan administration refer to assurances of not agreeing to set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan, not to hold prior consultations with China on arms sales to Taiwan, not to play any mediation role between Taipei and Beijing, not to revise the TRA, not to alter the U.S. position regarding Taiwan's sovereignty and not to exert pressure on Taiwan to enter into negotiations with China.

(By Lu Hsin-hui, Tang Pei-chun and Elaine Hou)
ENDITEM/ke