Taiwan says US defence commitment unchanged as $14 billion arms sale hangs

Taipei: Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Tuesday he had not heard that the US was planning on carving up a potential $14 billion arms sale into smaller chunks, but added that Washington’s commitments to Taipei’s defences had not changed.

US President Donald Trump has held back approval of the new package of arms sales to Taipei in order to maintain warm relations and a fragile trade truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In December, Trump approved an $11 billion package.

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In May, after meeting Xi in Beijing, Trump said he was holding up a second package and described ​it as a “very good negotiating chip.” China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, has repeatedly called for the arms sales to end.

Officials in Taipei previously said Washington could carve up the arms sales into smaller chunks in an effort to avoid upsetting Beijing too much.

Speaking in parliament, Koo said the US has repeatedly reaffirmed that its commitment to helping Taiwan strengthen its self-defence capabilities has not changed.

“Regarding arms sales, we respect the US review process. We are also continuing to coordinate with the United States. At present, we have not received any information about so-called separate batches,” he added, without elaborating.The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and Washington is Taipei’s most important international backer, despite an absence of formal diplomatic ties.

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Koo said Taiwan and the US “do indeed have close exchanges in the military and defence spheres.”

“This will also help us with our current war-preparedness efforts and the transformation of our armed forces.”

This week, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung and former President Tsai Ing-wen are in the US, the latter making her first trip to the country since stepping down two years ago.

A US State Department spokesperson said, in response to those visits, that the US and international community as a whole benefit from engagement with Taiwan given its tech prowess and the fact it is a vibrant democracy.

The Chinese embassy in Washington reiterated that it “firmly opposes official interactions of any form between China’s Taiwan region and the US.”