US Announces Sale of Weapons Systems to Taiwan Worth Over US$10 Billion

TaiwanPlus News

​The US State Department has approved a weapons sale to Taiwan worth more than US$10 billion, the second deal under the current Trump administration, which includes different kinds of munitions, artillery and missiles.

Transcript

00:00The U.S. State Department has approved a sale of more than 10 billion U.S. dollars of weapons systems to Taiwan,

00:06the second such sale under the current Trump administration.

00:10Our reporter Alan Liu has been following the story and joins us now from our Taipei newsroom.

00:15Alan, tell us more about what's in this new arms package.

00:21Yeah, so the arms package is worth about 11.1 billion U.S. dollars,

00:26which is way more than the last deal in November under Trump, which was around 300 million U.S. dollars.

00:33So back then, the package was mainly for maintenance and parts for arms that Taiwan already has.

00:40But this one, it specifically focuses on the weapons for Taiwan's army.

00:45So that includes different types of munition, artillery, and missiles.

00:50That also specifically includes the High Mars rocket systems,

00:53which has played a big role in the Russia-Ukraine war.

00:57The Defense Ministry says it welcomes the move,

01:01and says that it will help boost Taiwan's asymmetric warfare capabilities in the future,

01:06which basically means it could help Taiwan fight a bigger enemy in the future.

01:11Taiwan's special defense budget is still currently held up in the legislature.

01:33So the Defense Ministry says it still needs the budget to be approved

01:37before they can move forward with the purchases.

01:41So Alan, what are you hearing about these weapons?

01:47Some experts I spoke to told me that these weapons are to boost Taiwan's army's capabilities,

01:54particularly the High Mars rocket systems and the self-propelled artillery systems,

01:59which in total are worth about $8 billion U.S. dollars.

02:02They also say the artillery systems is especially important

02:07because the current stocks in Taiwan are mostly outdated

02:13and couldn't really keep up with the modern warfare.

02:16The package still needs to be certified by the U.S. Congress for it to take effect.

02:44But as you just heard, the expectation here is that the deal will happen

02:48as the Defense Ministry says it could go forward in just about a month.

02:55Thanks, Alan.

02:56That was Alan Liu live in Taipei.

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