00:00Lawmakers are advancing special defense budget proposals from each major party.
00:04It's mostly a procedural step that paves the way for each bill to be debated in committee.
00:08The original proposal by the Lai administration was for US$40 billion, spread out over 8 years,
00:13funding an already agreed-upon arms package from the US, in addition to a T-Dome missile
00:17defense system and 200,000 drones.
00:19The Taiwan People's Party put forward a bill that only funds the US arms deal and has a
00:23spending cap of about $13 billion.
00:26The Kuomintang is proposing roughly $11 billion in what they're calling a plus-n plan,
00:31providing a path for future arms sales if they are government-to-government agreements
00:34and receive further legislative approval.
00:37The Defense Ministry says the KMC proposal isn't feasible, as it leaves gaps in Taiwan's
00:41defensive plans and puts impossible requirements on vital arms sales.
00:45He's asking that we have in December 117, March 15, 21st of July 21st?
00:52That's the right, the contract was taken to be completed.
00:56If it's done with a deal, then it would mean a contract passed in to the office.
01:07arm sales normally take years to complete so a deadline of just over two years away would be
01:11difficult to meet especially for these complex precision weapon systems and taiwan has little
01:16control over u.s. arms production taiwan is already on track to buy weapons worth 11 billion dollars
01:21from the u.s. if it does not sign the offer and acquisition letters by march 15 then the u
01:26.s. can
01:26sell some of those weapons to another country or renegotiate the price the defense ministry wants
01:30to sign the authorization letters first then return to a standard procurement review process after that
01:35on friday morning the taiwan people's party said they would put forward a motion to do just that
01:39the tpp and kmt have been feeling the pressure from washington with u.s lawmakers and experts urging
01:44them to take taiwan's defense more seriously this political deadlock hasn't done much to assuage
01:49those concerns this all comes as u.s president donald trump is preparing to visit china at the
01:55end of this month trump has reportedly delayed arm sales to taiwan stoking fears about u.s commitments
02:00and highlighting that time is of the essence here in taipei scott huang alex chen and larry siano for taiwan
02:06plus
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