Taiwan Vows to Keep Close Ties With US on Arms Sales Ahead of Xi-Trump Meet
Taiwan says it will maintain close contact with the US to implement arms sales as planned, ahead of a Xi Jinping-Donald Trump meeting in Washington.
Taiwan will keep in close contact with the United States to ensure arms sales proceed as planned, a defence ministry official said on Wednesday, speaking days before a scheduled meeting between US and Chinese leaders in Washington.
Deputy spokesperson Chiao Fu-chun told reporters in the southern city of Tainan that security and stability in the Indo-Pacific were a "common interest of democratic nations". He said both the US government and Congress had repeatedly backed Taiwan's capacity for self-defence, and that Taipei would continue working closely with the US Department of War to move the arms packages forward.
China regards Taiwan, which is democratically governed, as its own territory and has repeatedly called on Washington to end weapons sales to the island. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to press US President Donald Trump to halt the transfers when the two meet in Washington this week.
Trump approved an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan in December, the largest such deal to date. After visiting Beijing in May, he said a second package worth about $14 billion was being held in abeyance.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te has backed Trump's call for US allies to increase their defence spending. While the US remains Taipei's most important arms supplier, Taiwan runs its own weapons development programme covering submarines, fighter jets and long-range missiles.
On Wednesday, Taiwan's army demonstrated a new eight-wheeled armoured combat vehicle armed with a 105mm gun, conducting live-fire exercises to showcase the domestically built platform. US-made systems, including Lockheed Martin's HIMARS rocket launchers, were displayed but not fired.
Such live-fire drills and media visits to military sites are routine in Taiwan. China has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control, and its military operates around Taiwan on an almost daily basis. Taipei rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, maintaining that only the Taiwanese people can decide their future.