TAIPEI, April 27 — The top United States (US) diplomat in Taiwan is pressing the island's opposition-majority Parliament to pass a "comprehensive" defence budget, saying integrated air and missile defence systems and drones are critically important and in high demand globally.
Last year, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te proposed US$40 billion (RM158.1 billion) in supplemental defence spending, covering not only new US weapons but also homemade weapons like drones, saying Taipei needs to more effectively deter the threat from China, which views the island as its own territory.
He said that only Taiwan's people can decide the island's future.
But talks in Parliament to advance the proposal have stalled, with the main Kuomintang (KMT) opposition party saying that, while it supports defence spending, it will not sign "blank cheques" and wants more details from the government.
In an interview with the Taiwanese newspaper The China Times, Raymond Greene, the de facto US ambassador in Taipei, said it was vital for Taiwan to pass a "comprehensive budget package."
"This would not only send a critical signal to the international community, but is also essential for ensuring Taiwan acquires the full range of defence capabilities it has requested," he said.
Greene added that while Washington has already announced the sale of weapons, including the Lockheed Martin-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, Taiwan's special defence budget also seeks integrated air and missile defence systems and drones, among other things.
"As evidenced on the battlefields of the Middle East and Ukraine, these systems are not only critically important but are also in extremely high demand worldwide," said Greene, who is head of the American Institute in Taiwan, which handles the unofficial relations between Washington and Taipei.
Taiwan's government has said delays to passing the budget could mean Taiwan risks losing its place in the production and delivery queue for US weapons.
Threat is not 'random talk'
Speaking at Parliament on Monday, Defence Minister Wellington Koo said the threat Taiwan faced was not just "random talk," pointing to Chinese warships spotted in recent days in waters to the southwest of Taiwan's Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait.
"This is a matter that bears on the very survival of our country," he said, referring to the need to pass the defence spending legislation.
KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun, who met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing earlier this month on what she called a journey of peace, is planning to visit the US in June.
Speaking on a local radio show today, she said that Taiwan should not have to choose between China and the US, but that the world is worried about the possibility of war between China and Taiwan.
The US is Taiwan's most important international backer and arms supplier, and in December last year, it unveiled an US$11 billion (RM43.48 billion) arms package, the largest ever for Taipei.
China has repeatedly demanded that the US stop selling weapons to Taiwan.
