By Yimou Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan does not have a “concrete list” of new arms deals to put to the United States’ incoming Trump administration but is keen to discuss how to boost the island’s defence, senior Taiwan security officials said.
Democratically governed Taiwan, which is claimed by China, may place large new arms deals early in the life of the next U.S. administration to show it takes seriously a comment by President-elect Donald Trump that Taiwan should pay “protection” money, people familiar with government thinking previously told Reuters.
The government in Taipei is considering buying a big package of weapons from the U.S. to demonstrate its commitment to the island’s defence, the Financial Times reported this week.
“Currently we do not have any such concrete list but we welcome advice from all sides, with the most important thing being how to boost self-defence capacity,” a senior Taiwan security official told reporters in Taipei, requesting anonymity to be able to speak more frankly.
“Taiwan is very willing to further discuss with all like-minded partners, especially the U.S., how to continue to reinforce Taiwan’s defence capacity,” said the official.
Taiwan, whose government rejects China’s sovereignty claims, has faced repeated military pressure from Beijing, including a new round last month in a series of war games.
The island’s biggest arms supplier is the U.S. It has an order backlog worth some $20 billion and last month announced an almost $2 billion order for missile systems.
China opposes the sale, which includes radar and missile systems, and has urged the U.S. to “immediately stop arming Taiwan”.
Taiwan’s total defence spending has jumped to around 80% to date since the ruling Democratic Progressive Party entered office in 2016, the official said.
“Our commitment to self defence will only get stronger, not weaker,” the official said.
Taiwan’s government regularly holds discussions with major U.S. parties as well as think tanks on whether the island’s current military hardware and software are effective enough to counter any Chinese attack, a second Taiwan security official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Such discussions include whether Taiwan should greatly boost the size of its drone fleet capable of striking high-value Chinese military assets, the official said.
“Such reviews are a normality,” the official said, adding Taiwan has not started a new round of arms talks with the U.S.
“There are a lot of discussions and recommendations. We welcome everything that’s beneficial to boosting Taiwan’s defence.”
(Reporting by Yimou Lee; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Christopher Cushing)
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