The Joe Biden administration has approved the maiden United States military transfer to Taiwan under a programme usually reserved for assistance to sovereign states, aiming to strengthen the island’s self-defence capabilities.
The move is likely to irk China and soar the prevailing tensions with Beijing ahead of the G20 Summit for which President Joe Biden will travel to India from September 7 to 10. Chinese President Xi Jinping is likely to be present at the meeting.
The US State Department notified Congress in this regard on Wednesday (August 30) stating that the material would be “used to strengthen Taiwan's self-defense capabilities through joint and combined defense capability and enhanced maritime domain awareness and maritime security capability”.
The package is modest — only USD 80 million of what Congress had set aside as a potential USD 2 billion — but the implications of using the so-called Foreign Military Financing programme to provide it will likely infuriate China.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has time and again not ruled out the use of force to reunite with the mainland. Xi Jinping-led Asian country has also protested against the sale of arms by the US to self-governing island.
However, previous arms sales to Taiwan have been approved under other authorities that do not necessarily imply statehood.
The US officials said that the provision of FMF funding to Taiwan did not indicate a change in its policy. It's a position the Chinese are sure to disagree with.
What did the officials say?
“The United States has provided Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Taiwan for years. FMF simply enables eligible partner nations to purchase US defense articles, services, and training through either FMS or, for a limited number of countries, through the foreign military financing of direct commercial contracts (FMF/DCC) program,” two US officials said.
But the language used implied that Taiwan is or could be compared to a “nation” or a “country” — something China has fervently opposed, blocking Taiwan's full membership in any number of UN and other international organisations unless it is identified as part of China.
African Union, an organisation of sovereign states based in Ethiopia, was the only non-nation-state that received military assistance under FMF by the United States, according to American officials.
However, according to the copy of the FMF assistance to Taiwan, the notification did not specify what military equipment or systems would be paid.
But, it said items that could be covered would include: air and coastal defense systems, armoured vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles, drones, ballistic missile and cyber defenses, and advanced communications equipment, adding that protective gear, an array of small, medium and heavy weapons systems, ammunition, armoured and infantry fighting vehicles could also be included.
Besides equipment, FMF may also be used to support training for Taiwanese military forces.
(With AP inputs)
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