MISSILES AND ARTILLERY
As pressure from the United States – Taiwan’s most important security backer – mounted, however, senior KMT lawmakers demanded a much higher budget than the one initially proposed by the party.
Taiwan’s parliament previously gave the government a green light to sign US agreements for four weapons deals, even though funding for these and other arms had not yet been approved.
The weapons – M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, Javelin anti-armour missiles, TOW 2B missiles and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) – account for nearly US$9 billion of the US$11.1 billion arms package announced by Washington in December.
The KMT was “willing to fully support” a second phase of arms sales worth more than US$15 billion that the defence ministry has told lawmakers would include “Patriot missiles, Hellfire (missiles), and related counter-drone defence systems”, party caucus leader Fu Kun-chi told a press conference before the vote.
The vote comes days before US President Donald Trump is due to arrive in Beijing for a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, who has warned the US against sending more weapons to Taiwan.
Cheng recently went to China, where she met with Xi, and she has expressed hopes to travel to the United States in June.